Film Review - Boss

Boss Karo !

Film: Boss
Cast: Akshay Kumar,  Shiv Pandit, Aditi Rao Hydari
Directed by: Anthony D'Souza
Duration:2hrs 15 mins
Rating: * *

The good news is that Boss is not as bad as some of Akshay Kumars other films.  But if you leave those abysmal standards aside, it is still a lousy film with an asinine story and that is the bad news. Directed by Anthony D'Souza so gave us that unforgettable under water dud Blue, this horrible Boss is a remake of the super hit Malayalam film Pokkiri Raja starring Mammoty and Prithviraj.

By now, film makers should have realised that what works in the South, may not work anywhere else. Yet you see many remakes that sink in without a trace, occasionally they do make money for the producers in spite of being a bad film, like say Rowdy Rathore.

So Akshay Kumar plays the lead role of Boss, a goon and contract killer of sorts. Several sunrises ago when he was a kid, his dad (Mithun Chakraborty) had banished him because he was a very violent character. Not since Amar Akbar Anthony have we seen the opening credits come in so late into the film but that's the only similarity it has with Manmohan Desai's classic.

The younger son Shiv (Shiv Pandit) was and remains the apple of his eye but he gets into trouble with a politician (main top par pahunchna chahata hoon he says) and a corrupt police (Ronit Roy). Incidentally,  he also falls in love with the cops sister (Aditi Rao) and that complicates it further.

The old man then 'hires' his elder son to rescue the younger one. The rest of the film involves family bonding, breaking limbs but mercifully, no romance. Sonakshi Sinha makes an appearance in an item number but even before you can dig and not find gold, she vanishes.

While there is the odd funny moment,  most of it is rather hackneyed.  The is a fair amount of violence as well which was strictly avoidable.Akshay Kumar does his usual bit but it's not enough to salvage the situation. The audience certainly deserved better than a Boss like this one !

(Published in The Navhind Times on 20th Oct. 2013)

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