“We know that a Salman film is created solely to display his ‘andaaz’ designed to send his fans into a swoon.”
Review #1
Kick movie review
Cast: Salman Khan, Jacqueline Fernandes, Randeep Hooda, Nawazudin Siddiqui, Mithun Chakraborty
Director : Sajid Nadiadwala
IE Rating: **
What this lovely word means is ‘unbearable’, though it can’t come remotely close to the tedium that the original describes. Salman’s leading lady says it to him. About him. Yes, gasp, addressing the one and the only Sallu Bhai, who appears in his latest In and As avatar in ‘Kick’.
We duly crack a smile. Look, look, Bhai is sending himself up. He’s letting his heroine crack a good one at his expense. Because he knows that he is anything but. And that he’s just waiting for her to finish the scene and leave, to get into his `Dabangg’ mode, for the hall will burst into hoots and claps and whistles.
That’s what a viewing of ‘Kick’ comes down to. I found it more or less ‘jhelable’ when Salman is not taking himself seriously, blowing a cherry at us. When the film starts getting him close to his noble Being Human image, it becomes a yawn. Salman kickin’ it is fine, but tearin’ up? Nahiiiiiin.
The plot, as befits a Salman Khan spectacle, is completely and delightfully cuckoo. Devi Lal Singh (Salman Khan) is a guy who wanders about searching for kicks. His father (Mithun Chakraborty) eggs him on in his pursuit. Devi runs into the sexy Shaina (Jacqueline Fernandez), but before anything can happen , he’s off and away. It’s time for Devi’s alter-ego, Devil, to show up, and be chased by a cop ( Hooda), and a crook (Nawazuddin Siddiqui) here and there and everywhere.
Never mind these niceties. We know that a Salman film is created solely to display his popular quirks and his one-liners and his ‘andaaz’, all of which are designed to send his fans into a swoon. Simple. When the story dares to fling such complex phrases as ‘retrograde amnesia’ and ‘conservative management’ at us, we fling them right back as we wait for Salman to slam it.
What makes ‘Kick’ interesting, apart from some unfettered Salman moments, is Siddiqui in full flow. His villainy is very Bollywood, with a trademark evil laugh, but self-aware and vivid at the same time : there are scenes he steals from everyone, including, sacrilege, from the Khan, even though the latter gets to throw away one of the most famous lines in movie history, with a wink : you talking to me?
Everything else is as it should be. Fernandez is made to play a psychiatrist just so Bhai can call her Psycho. Ha ha. We know she is a doctor because she wears thick framed-spectacles, which she chucks to a side to execute a perfect eye-popping shimmy shake.
Review #2
SPOILERS ALERT
To give the Devil his due, Kick isn’t half as bad as some of the Bollywood flicks that moviegoers have been subjected to in recent months.
Kick is the Sajid Nadiadwala's debut as a director. Sajid is a seasoned producer of money-spinning potboilers. It is no different from the films that his banner usually bankrolls.
Kick revels in excess, which, for a film of its kind, is not necessarily a drawback. It dishes out everything in abundance.
Eye-catching foreign locations, elaborately mounted action sequences, flashy pyrotechnics and stunts straight out of Hollywood superhero movies, song and dance routines bunged in randomly for occasional relief and loads of Dabangg-style dialoguebaazi are all par for the course here.
Take it or lump it. Kick delivers enough harmless lowbrow entertainment not to be dismissed as a complete waste of time for its target audience: the diehard fan of Salman Khan.
It is another matter that the screenplay, which is credited to a quartet of writers, including Chetan Bhagat, is a messy mish-mash that swims in layers of nothingness.
There is one thought that repeatedly flashes across this critic’s mind as sajid peddles his ware over a runtime of two and a half hours. Has our tolerance threshold been so dramatically raised by monstrosities of the Humshakals kind that Kick resembles a solid hit out of the park?
Or is it simply that one has such low expectations these days from star-driven movies that are pitched as surefire blockbusters that even a half decent action flick acquires the looks of a possible breakthrough?
No matter what conclusion one eventually draws, this over-the-top thriller about a messianic superhero (Salman Khan), a never-say-die super cop (Randeep Hooda) and a sniffing, smirking, scowling baddie (Nawazuddin Siddiqui in his first major mainstream movie outing) caught in a convoluted cat-and-mouse game that stretches from Delhi to Warsaw is pedestrian without being outright abysmal.
The male protagonist, Chandni Chowk lad Devi Lal Singh, Devi to friends, is an altruistic and infallible rabble-rouser who seeks a kick from risky encounters.
Life has no meaning for the guy unless it is packed with drama, tension and action at every turn.
Devi ensures the wedding of an intransigent lady MLA’s daughter (Sumona Chakravarti) with his Gujju childhood buddy (Kavin Dave).
Minutes later, he turns up at an eatery and reduces a bunch of eve-teasers to pulp after delivering a sermon to the other guests aimed at shaming them for doing nothing to save the girl in distress.
A psychiatrist, Shaina Mehra (Jacqueline Fernandez), a diplomat’s daughter who has winged it to Delhi purportedly for the wedding, is witness to Devi’s serial acts of heroism.
Predictably, she falls in love with the man despite listing him in her smartphone as “Headache”.
The hero has a dad (Mithun Chakraborty) and mom (Archana Puran Singh, seen in a single scene) who are as prone to obstreperous dramatics as him.
The ‘headache’ spreads quickly. It first affects Shaina’s dad (Saurabh Shukla), whose blood pressure shoots up to nearly fatal levels.
Then, as the plot progresses and thickens, the source of the headache becomes a prestige issue for upright police officer Himanshu Tyagi, a man who takes pride in his unblemished track record.
The third pillar of the film is an exploitative healthcare company owner Shiv Gajra, who uses his snazzy hospitals to squeeze people dry.
He makes his first appearance a little into the second half and comes up against the same masked Robin Hood that the cop is on the trail of.
The disguised crime-buster is obviously on a mission and he has to contend with both the law and the outlaw. If only he knew how to deal with a patchy screenplay his task would have been much simpler.
On the acting front, there are three distinct styles on show in Kick.
The first is the Salman Khan style, in which the actor is regarded as truly successful only if he can overshadow the character he is playing.
Does he pull it off? Salman is good at playing Salman. He does it again with aplomb.
The second variety is the one that Randeep Hooda demonstrates. A talented actor, he knows his chops, and does not an ounce more than is needed in a film like Kick. He is none the worse for it.
Nawazuddin Siddiqui, despite being saddled with a weakly written character, shows blinding flashes of brilliance.
One expects the extraordinary from Kick only when Nawazuddin is on the screen. It is unfortunate for both the film and the audience that he isn’t on the screen often enough or long enough.
Kick provides a kick only sporadically. For Salman Khan fans, that should be good enough.
Review #1
Kick movie review
Cast: Salman Khan, Jacqueline Fernandes, Randeep Hooda, Nawazudin Siddiqui, Mithun Chakraborty
Director : Sajid Nadiadwala
IE Rating: **
What this lovely word means is ‘unbearable’, though it can’t come remotely close to the tedium that the original describes. Salman’s leading lady says it to him. About him. Yes, gasp, addressing the one and the only Sallu Bhai, who appears in his latest In and As avatar in ‘Kick’.
We duly crack a smile. Look, look, Bhai is sending himself up. He’s letting his heroine crack a good one at his expense. Because he knows that he is anything but. And that he’s just waiting for her to finish the scene and leave, to get into his `Dabangg’ mode, for the hall will burst into hoots and claps and whistles.
That’s what a viewing of ‘Kick’ comes down to. I found it more or less ‘jhelable’ when Salman is not taking himself seriously, blowing a cherry at us. When the film starts getting him close to his noble Being Human image, it becomes a yawn. Salman kickin’ it is fine, but tearin’ up? Nahiiiiiin.
The plot, as befits a Salman Khan spectacle, is completely and delightfully cuckoo. Devi Lal Singh (Salman Khan) is a guy who wanders about searching for kicks. His father (Mithun Chakraborty) eggs him on in his pursuit. Devi runs into the sexy Shaina (Jacqueline Fernandez), but before anything can happen , he’s off and away. It’s time for Devi’s alter-ego, Devil, to show up, and be chased by a cop ( Hooda), and a crook (Nawazuddin Siddiqui) here and there and everywhere.
Never mind these niceties. We know that a Salman film is created solely to display his popular quirks and his one-liners and his ‘andaaz’, all of which are designed to send his fans into a swoon. Simple. When the story dares to fling such complex phrases as ‘retrograde amnesia’ and ‘conservative management’ at us, we fling them right back as we wait for Salman to slam it.
What makes ‘Kick’ interesting, apart from some unfettered Salman moments, is Siddiqui in full flow. His villainy is very Bollywood, with a trademark evil laugh, but self-aware and vivid at the same time : there are scenes he steals from everyone, including, sacrilege, from the Khan, even though the latter gets to throw away one of the most famous lines in movie history, with a wink : you talking to me?
Everything else is as it should be. Fernandez is made to play a psychiatrist just so Bhai can call her Psycho. Ha ha. We know she is a doctor because she wears thick framed-spectacles, which she chucks to a side to execute a perfect eye-popping shimmy shake.
Review #2
SPOILERS ALERT
To give the Devil his due, Kick isn’t half as bad as some of the Bollywood flicks that moviegoers have been subjected to in recent months.
Kick is the Sajid Nadiadwala's debut as a director. Sajid is a seasoned producer of money-spinning potboilers. It is no different from the films that his banner usually bankrolls.
Kick revels in excess, which, for a film of its kind, is not necessarily a drawback. It dishes out everything in abundance.
Eye-catching foreign locations, elaborately mounted action sequences, flashy pyrotechnics and stunts straight out of Hollywood superhero movies, song and dance routines bunged in randomly for occasional relief and loads of Dabangg-style dialoguebaazi are all par for the course here.
Take it or lump it. Kick delivers enough harmless lowbrow entertainment not to be dismissed as a complete waste of time for its target audience: the diehard fan of Salman Khan.
It is another matter that the screenplay, which is credited to a quartet of writers, including Chetan Bhagat, is a messy mish-mash that swims in layers of nothingness.
There is one thought that repeatedly flashes across this critic’s mind as sajid peddles his ware over a runtime of two and a half hours. Has our tolerance threshold been so dramatically raised by monstrosities of the Humshakals kind that Kick resembles a solid hit out of the park?
Or is it simply that one has such low expectations these days from star-driven movies that are pitched as surefire blockbusters that even a half decent action flick acquires the looks of a possible breakthrough?
No matter what conclusion one eventually draws, this over-the-top thriller about a messianic superhero (Salman Khan), a never-say-die super cop (Randeep Hooda) and a sniffing, smirking, scowling baddie (Nawazuddin Siddiqui in his first major mainstream movie outing) caught in a convoluted cat-and-mouse game that stretches from Delhi to Warsaw is pedestrian without being outright abysmal.
The male protagonist, Chandni Chowk lad Devi Lal Singh, Devi to friends, is an altruistic and infallible rabble-rouser who seeks a kick from risky encounters.
Life has no meaning for the guy unless it is packed with drama, tension and action at every turn.
Devi ensures the wedding of an intransigent lady MLA’s daughter (Sumona Chakravarti) with his Gujju childhood buddy (Kavin Dave).
Minutes later, he turns up at an eatery and reduces a bunch of eve-teasers to pulp after delivering a sermon to the other guests aimed at shaming them for doing nothing to save the girl in distress.
A psychiatrist, Shaina Mehra (Jacqueline Fernandez), a diplomat’s daughter who has winged it to Delhi purportedly for the wedding, is witness to Devi’s serial acts of heroism.
Predictably, she falls in love with the man despite listing him in her smartphone as “Headache”.
The hero has a dad (Mithun Chakraborty) and mom (Archana Puran Singh, seen in a single scene) who are as prone to obstreperous dramatics as him.
The ‘headache’ spreads quickly. It first affects Shaina’s dad (Saurabh Shukla), whose blood pressure shoots up to nearly fatal levels.
Then, as the plot progresses and thickens, the source of the headache becomes a prestige issue for upright police officer Himanshu Tyagi, a man who takes pride in his unblemished track record.
The third pillar of the film is an exploitative healthcare company owner Shiv Gajra, who uses his snazzy hospitals to squeeze people dry.
He makes his first appearance a little into the second half and comes up against the same masked Robin Hood that the cop is on the trail of.
The disguised crime-buster is obviously on a mission and he has to contend with both the law and the outlaw. If only he knew how to deal with a patchy screenplay his task would have been much simpler.
On the acting front, there are three distinct styles on show in Kick.
The first is the Salman Khan style, in which the actor is regarded as truly successful only if he can overshadow the character he is playing.
Does he pull it off? Salman is good at playing Salman. He does it again with aplomb.
The second variety is the one that Randeep Hooda demonstrates. A talented actor, he knows his chops, and does not an ounce more than is needed in a film like Kick. He is none the worse for it.
Nawazuddin Siddiqui, despite being saddled with a weakly written character, shows blinding flashes of brilliance.
One expects the extraordinary from Kick only when Nawazuddin is on the screen. It is unfortunate for both the film and the audience that he isn’t on the screen often enough or long enough.
Kick provides a kick only sporadically. For Salman Khan fans, that should be good enough.
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