Action - Movie Review

‘Action', starring Vishal, hit the screens today. Let's find out what works and what doesn't in this action drama.  

Story:

Colonel Subash (Vishal) is the son of the Chief Minister. His elder brother gets elevated to the top position in the party. Subash himself is in love with his 'maradalu', played by Aishwarya Lekshmi. Just as everything seems to be going well, a bomb blast kills the country's future PM. The blame falls on the hero's family. The elder brother commits suicide.

It's now up to Subash to unravel the mystery behind the earth-shattering political assassination. He has a brush with a terror network armed by Malik (Kabir Duhan Singh). Can he smash the terror network?

Analysis:

Writer-director Sundar C doesn't have a strong story. He knows that the plot is thin and the main point of the story is predictable. However, he is helped by huge set pieces and a high budget. What does he pull off with this?

For one, 'Action' boasts of some quality gravity-defying fights. The combats ape Hollywood movies but still, given the reality of the south Indian cinema, this film aims high. For another, the visuals are spectacular for the most part. Dudley's cinematography is not only impressive but also consistently good.

The chase of Vishal's character takes him to Lahore, Istanbul and London, among others. The locations are many, in fact, one too many. For example, Aakanksha Puri gets a special song for herself and it's a beach song shot in Carribean Islands. Oh boy, she looks damn hot!

The budget for production design is definitely among the film's big strengths.

Amidst all this, however, the writing takes a beating. If you search for logic, you will scratch your head. It's not clear why the assassination of the country's future PM doesn't warrant an all-round attack by India on enemies. Nobody in the country seems to be bothered about it. You have only the hero doing a lot of things - all by himself!

The action choreography is largely good. But it could have been scintillating.  These days, the audience are exposed to a lot of Hollywood stuff, especially on OTT platforms. Given this reality, the writing has to be smart and Indianized.  

The family scenes almost test your patience. The love track between Vishal and Aishwarya is short but even the short length is boring. Assassinations are shown to be happening with a lot of ease. There is no attention to detail. Money laundering of humongous proportions takes place just like that.

The performances of the main actors are adequate. Vishal shows sincerity. Tamannaah Bhatia, whose equations with the hero are sketchy, does an okayish job.  

Kabir Duhan Singh is a caricature, Yogi Babu and Sayaji Shinde are boring.  Hiphop Tamizha's songs are a letdown. The BGM, however, compensates. The other technical aspects are winsome.

Bottomline: 'Action' is meant to be watched as a mindless action flick. It's better than a lot of recent attempts in south cinema, like Suriya's 'Bandobast'. It's also way better than the stupidities unleashed recently by Gopichand's 'Chanakya'. All in all, this is a watchable film despite some terrible creative liberties.