Action Replayy

Director: Vipul Shah

Actors: Akshay Kumar,Aishwarya Rai,Aditiya Roy Kapoor, Kirron Kher, Neha Dhupia, Om Puri, Rajpal Yadav, Randhir Kapoor, Rannvijay Singh Singha, Sudeepa Singh

25 years back in 1985 Robert Zemeckis thought of sending a cool dude of contemporary times to the past. And when he reaches the past and meets the younger version of his parents, his would-be mother falls for him. Subsequently it is up to him to fix the problem and get his parents to love each other. If I made you wonder what I am talking about, let me clear things. Action Replayy is very similar in plot. But of course director Vipul Shah claims that his film is based on Gujarati play by the same name - a play he worked on many years back. In that case the play clearly is inspired.

Of course you cannot have the mother-son attraction angle in India considering presence of cultural obligation and moral policing. Instead Vipul Shah creates another character. And that's all Neha Dhupia seems to have to do in the film. Neha Dhupia, who has been a part of some interesting sensible films in recent past baffles with her decision to take up a role which could have been done with a junior artist!This apart the story and screenplay fails to hold interest. Vipul Shah, a competent director when it comes to storytelling and characterization, attempts recreating the 70s. And he creates some characters to help his story, but sadly none of the characters appeal. Rather they irritate instead of being funny.

Action Replayy is about a boy who is afraid of marriage as his parents have been a bad example. When he finds that his girlfriend's grandfather has created a time machine he decides to visit the past and help his parents fall in love. The story required the director to create the bygone era. And he does that with the help of special effects apart from creating special sets. But the effects look tacky and fake. Also the makeup used to make actors look old does not look too good. The film has been shot well but that hardly matters when the story bores.

Performances are worthy. Aishwarya Rai looks good and does well too. Akshay Kumar manages to pull an outrageously over the top character. Ranvijay Singh is very good. Aditya Roy Kapur, who's're-introduced' in this film, does a decent job as one of the leads. Randhir Kapoor is wasted. Overall, Action Replayy is another Diwali disappointment from Akshay Kumar. Last year another blunder called Blue released to a whole lot of criticism during Diwali. Director Vipul Shah seems to have lost it. His latest film neither pays any tribute to the 70s nor does it work as a love story.

First half of Farah Khan’s Om Shanti Om, a lovably nostalgic take on ‘70s Bollywood, I suspect, also inspired the first chapter of several films planned after that movie’s release. Om Shanti Om was part-cinema, part-spoof, enjoyed by all, and the Diwali blockbuster of 2007. Two to three years is roughly how long it should take for an inspiration to be green-lit and turned into full-on, big-budget film.

Action Replayy has all the right ingredients to make a movie work, an impressive list of names, and a good story of a boy who wishes to travel to the future and instead gets to the past, a love story plotted in the 70s but it all gets lost. Vipul Amrutlal Shah, tries hard to mix and match so many things in the film that none of it comes across convincingly, neither the characters nor the plot or the dialogue.

This was not the first time Akshay played a nerd who transforms himself into the hot dude; he has done that before in Jaan-E-Mann. So apart from the 70s looks there was not much for the actor to offer in the role of Kishan. Aishwarya looks impeccable in the long shots but once again lacks in performance and some of the powerhouse performers like Om Puri, Kirron Kher and Rajpal Yadav are wasted in the film. What does work is the art direction and recreating the era of 70s Mumbai?

Hence, Action Replay (this one), Golmaal 3 (the movie at the theatre next to it), some you’ve just seen (Once Upon A Time In Mumbai), and are likely to watch soon (Yamla Pagla Deewana etc). You’re certifiably old when your own entertainment is considered retro for its time.

This one isn’t intended for those who grew up in the ‘70s. It’s for those who can imagine the decade from its films and fashion alone - the kind of nostalgia that demands no realism; is perfect for charming, escapist, candyfloss entertainment. This film bears all of it, but in merely small, scattered parts. The movie claims to be adapted from a Gujarati play of the same name. I’m not sure if the said play had the Hollywood movie Back To The Future for its premise. This picture certainly does.

A young boy (Aditya Roy Kapoor, almost the picture’s hero: an unusually chunky role for a newcomer boy in a blockbuster) travels back in time, on a time machine, to save his parent’s failed marriage. His dad and mom can’t stand each other. He believes hooking them up better at young age should ensure them a healthier married life later.

The kid walks into a city where Julie is the cinema of the weekend at Capitol, the little theatre opposite Mumbai’s Victoria Terminus (which wasn’t Chhatrapati Shivaji yet, when Bombay wasn’t Mumbai either). There are fewer cars on wide roads, houses are huge, love marriages a taboo, and men and women parade in fashion, of well, the ‘70s (longish hair, nylon shirts, polka dots…).

The boy’s young, under-confident dad (Akshay Kumar) certainly needs help. He’s buck-teethed like Bugs Bunny, kitchen is the place he feels most at home. The son-to-be becomes the dating instructor (Andy Tennant's Hitch), pumps Kitchen Kumar with attitude, cool quotient, updates his fashion sense, even turns his Suryaprakash Bhojnalay into a Bollywood café (a word of the ‘90s).

Aishwarya Rai plays the girl next door. She is the object of desire. There’s another admirer (Ranvijay) to contend with. The dating guru pits the two suitors against each other in a music medley contest, inspired from the blockbuster of the ‘70s, Hum Kisise Kum Nahin.

As the songs play out, you figure why this movie hasn’t worked as much so far. Scenes may well be dull and weak in parts. And they are. But for a musical, the soundtrack a number lifted up from Bombay Rockers (Teri Toh), another one from Elvis’s Jailhouse Rock – is pure third rate.

Kumar, the hardest working Indian film star (averaging four films a year) remains the only thing to look out for then. This is his career's best performance. But then again, that may not be saying much, given Mr Kumar’s chosen career so far