Ek Tha Tiger

The movie starts off explosively – plenty of action, fast pace, fisticuffs in inimitable Salman style. But then in comes a stale Yash Raj plot about a love story and out goes the interest. The plot is full of holes – a spy sent to find out more about a nuclear scientist supposedly selling secrets to Pakistan spends more time ogling his assistant. SPOILER ALERT!! The said assistant has free access to the scientist’s home and computer any day of the week but chooses to get in during a play that she is directing, to download something off his computer. The movie is then all about the love affair between the two spies who have RAW and ISI chasing them through picturesque locales all over the world.


The chemistry between Salman and Katrina is practically nil in the first half, which is when the said falling in love part of the story happens. The dialogue is turgid. The pace is so slow you can take a nap, then wake up and find that pretty much nothing new has happened. The second half is full of action scenes and pretty set pieces, but all in all, we go to a film to be moved, to laugh, to cry, to exult – if we wanted to see pretty scenery, there’s always a travel website!

It’s such a pity because the story could have been a modern, fun, action film with spies from Pakistan and India, just like the initial premise. Only, instead of Veer Zaara reprised again, it could have actually built in an intriguing story, with a zippy ending that involved the spies taking off into the wild blue yonder. It’s high time Aditya Chopra broke some new ground in his plots. And Salman needs to watch out because if he starts selecting movies that only ride on his star quality rather than plot, he’ll go the way of many a fallen Bollywood Idol.

Comments

Olive Oyl said…
Your review stole my heart, thoroughly! And, though I realise that civilisational cravings take me to the cinema halls to watch Salman movies, much that I admired Dabbang, I return slightly unsure about the definitions of civilization that I had in my mind. Clearly, he can do way more than ordinary mortals in movies, and I feel inferior, thoroughly. And by the way, One of the professors you mentioned in a previous post, about IIM-C happens to be my professor now in Delhi. :D
December 24, 2012 at 9:07 AM
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