Zanjeer
Year:2013
Director: Apoorva Lakhia
Cast: Ram Charan Teja, Priyanka Chopra, Prakash Raj, Mahie Gill, Sanjay Dutt

One look at the promos was enough to make me cringe but still I did not want to be biased, so I watched the full 2013 version of Zanjeer. Exactly 40 years ago, Prakash Mehra's original Zanjeer had made one tall, lanky actor the toast of the nation and the biggest superstar in the history of Hindi cinema and I was interested to see how this remake works for another tall and rather well-built actor, who was already a big star in South. So what were the final findings?

What’s the plot?

A dashing cop (Ram Charan Teja), who needs very little reason to fly off the handle and who has been transferred 17 times before his current posting in Mumbai, is investigating a murder case. An NRI girl (Priyanka Chopra) has witnessed the gruesome killing but is too afraid to testify. The cop not only does make her realize her duty but also gets her into his home, of course with the noble intention of protecting her! The killing has been done at the behest of an oil Mafia don (Prakash Raj) and now the daredevil cop decides to take on his empire. Meanwhile he has found an unlikely friend in the golden-hearted gangster (Sajay Dutt) and has also started sharing bed cozily with the NRI witness he is protecting! Plus there is an unfinished business of getting rid of a nightmare that has haunted him since the day someone killed his parents in front of his eyes!

What’s hot?

·         Very little beyond some amusing antics from the ever-reliable Prakash Raj (who plays the flashy villain Teja) and Mahie Gill (who plays his horny muse Mona). But after some time, even those acts become irritating, thanks to repetitive unimaginative writing.

What’s not?

·         Pretty much everything sucks big time in this waste of a remake.

·         The contemporary transformation of the plot doesn’t work.

·         Ram Charan Teja is tall and tough-looking but he cannot act to save his life- and this film! To even compare his insipid Vijay to Amitabh’s original era-defining angry young man is sacrilege!

·         Priyanka Chopra overacts and Sanjay Dutt too follows suit.

Verdict

Apoorva Lakhia’s Zanjeer may not be as bad a remake as Ram Gopal Verma’s Aag and Sajid Khan’s Himmatwala but that’s the only consolation. As an action-film it passes the muster but in the comparison of its classic original, it hardly offers anything of note!

Rating

1 and 1/2 stars.