Baaghi
Year: 2016
Director: Sabbir Khan
Cast: Tiger Shroff, Shraddha Kapoor, Sudheer Babu

The promising young lead pair of Tiger Shroff and Shraddha Kapoor- comes together in this martial arts-centric thriller. How does the experiment work?

What’s the plot?

A rebellious youngster (Tiger Shroff) not only learns Kerala’s famous martial art- Kalaripayattu  but also the right way of life from his old, wise and tough master. Side by side, the lad falls in love with a young girl (Shraddha Kapoor). So far so good! But there is trouble in the making in the form of the master’s no-good son (Sudheer Babu), who is a champion martial artist, running an underground fighting-ring in Bangkok. This villain too comes to admire the lass and he decides to go all out to get her hand in marriage. When that plan doesn’t succeed, he decides to eliminate whosoever coming in the way and abduct the girl. Now the hero has to get her back and avenge whatever has been taken away from him!

What’s hot?

·         Tiger  Shroff’s great physique and his  martial arts prowess are the real attractions here! He is by far the best martial exponent to have featured in Bollywood.

·         Cinematography captures Kerala’s exotic natural beauty and the martial arts sequences well.

·         Some hand-to-hand combat sequences are imaginative.

What’s not?

·         Despite the double dose of ‘inspiration’-(Internet sources inform that Baaghi apparently is based on two movies- an Indonesian one and a Telugu one) - and a none-too-subtle referencing to popular Martial Arts movies and even to the epic Ramayana, the film’s story-line is horribly convoluted and uninspiring.

·         To make this kind of movie, slick direction is needed and Sabbir Khan fails miserably there.

·         The acting department seems to have gone on total strike! The lead pair, the villain, the comedians (Sanjay Mishra and Sumit Gulati) and the rest of the supporting cast dish out utterly unengaging, almost amateurish performances.

Verdict

Baaghi has apparently become a box-office hit. So the masses have already given their verdict.

If you ask me, I will advise you to give it a miss. It is just the sort of a sloppy Masala movie that gives bad name to the loved genre!

Rating

2 Stars