Far more entertaining than the original!. Review on Ek Ajnabee

Apoorva Lakhia (director of Ek Ajnabee) had a clever idea. He took a decent, but not outstanding or memorable, Hollywood movie (Man on Fire). He then copied the screenplay as closely as he possibly could and signed on a leading Indian actor, who is rarely anything but convincing and charismatic on screen, to play the hero. Unlike “Chocolate”, “Kaante”, “Musafir”, etc, etc…this movie is not just “inspired” from a Hollywood movie, it is an unashamed, “same to same” copy of the original…where the original was not that great to begin with. As a result, there shouldn’t be too many dissatisfied movie-goers grumbling about the massacre of a great Hollywood classic like say ,”The usual suspects” or “Reservoir Dogs” , on Indian screen!

PLOT-

For those who haven’t watched Man of Fire, the story goes like this. Action is set in Thailand, a place where kidnapping of rich people/kids is a large scale business. Retired Colonel Suryaveer (Amitabh Bacchan) is called to Bangkok, Thailand by an ex army-man/friend Arjun Rampal (for the life of me can’t remember his screen name!), to act as a bodyguard to a little girl, Anamika (Rucha Vaidya), the offspring of a rich Indian couple (Perizaad Zorabian and Vikram Chatwal). The Colonel has been brooding and drinking his time away in India, coz he happened to kill some innocent civilian children in Kashmir. He arrives in Bangkok a haunted, guilt-ridden, alcoholic man, hardly capable of being a bodyguard…but convinced otherwise by his friend Arjun. While the colonel takes up the job, he has a hard time tolerating his charge, Anamika…who is a typical bratty, mouthy, ten year old. However, over time, she wears down his hard shell and manages to get his affectionate regard.

The happy scenario is soon broken…disaster strikes….Anamika is kidnapped and the Colonel is shot down. Attempts to pay her ransom are botched and she is allegedly killed by her kidnappers. Colonel gets out of hospital, all sad and vengeful, and decides to get back at all the people responsible for Anamika’s kidnapping and death. How he unravels the mystery of her kidnapping, traces all the people involved, and then painfully kills each of them, forms the rest of the movie.

REVIEW-

The original plot is alright, therefore this screenplay works. There is a decent amount of suspense, fair amount of violence, nicely done action sequences (pretty close to the original), and a good star cast. There are a couple of songs to act as speedbreakers…which actually work in favour of the movie. The action might have gotten a bit too intense otherwise,

If the director had cast anyone other than Amitabh Bacchan, I’m not sure this movie would work as well as it does. Whether it is the alcoholic, traumatised old man, the irritable but ultimately indulgent bodyguard, or the ruthless avenger…he portrays each facet of his role with ease. Not only does he act the pants off his other co-actors, he also manages to look better than them…even with an impossibly good-looking Arjun Rampal and a nice looking Kelly Dorji on either side, you don’t look at anyone else other than Amitabh on screen!

Rucha Vaidya, the child artist, puts in a good performance. She reminds me of Urmila Matondkar as a child artist in Masoom. Arjun Rampal is effective as the glamorous foil to the oft morose Colonel. He could have toned down his wardrobe a bit though…the bright pink shirt with tight white pants, orange tie, and HAIRBAND were a bit too metro-sexual for my tastes…but he makes up for it by taking off his shirt and doing an “item number”! Its high time women had their share of eye candy on screen and Arjun fits the bill nicely…just avoid the pinks and the hair accessories in future Arjun!

All in all, this movie is worth watching once. I actually enjoyed it more than “Man on Fire”. While I am a big Denzel Washington (the lead actor in Man on Fire) fan, that movie was too dark, brooding, and self-important…not enough relief from all the drama…but the Indian version has songs, good looking men, and most importantly, AMITABH BACCHAN!