Starting from his directorial debut Aankhen (2002) to Waqt: the Race against Time (2005) and Namastey London (2007), Akshay Kumar has been Shah’s primary hero even if the films were disasters at the box office.[break]
Now a “master chef,” as he likes to put himself in his ongoing reality show aired on Star Plus, even Akshay Kumar seems to be equally fond of director Shah as he has never put off the offers of director Shah so far.
Director Vipul Amrutal Shah’s “Action Replayy” that released on Laxmi Puja both in Kathmandu and in India is a lot better than his previous films as aforementioned. Well, it’s another story that the film has a lot of similarities with Robert Zemeckis’s 1985 film “Back to the Future.” We believe Bollywood not just shares a similar name with Hollywood, it takes a lot of other “inspirations” too.
As you sit to relate Action Replayy with Back to the Future, you will realize that both films share a common bottom line – traveling to the past to correct one’s present situations. The only difference between the original Hollywood film and “inspired” Bollywood’s “new-made” is that in Back to the Future, the centre stress of the film is science fiction and survival of the traveler while in Action Replayy, the film centralizes on human relations and other emotions that come along in life.
Cut that aside, this romantic comedy/science fiction film is a complete three hour- entertainer to go for. Both Akhsay Kumar and Aishwarya Rai Bachchan share a great onscreen chemistry and the film is cinematographed beautifully to give it a true feeling of the 1970s. A lot of efforts on sets, props, lighting, hairdos, makeup and costumes are made to take the film travel back to the time of 70s. Of course, these efforts don’t go wasted.
Bunty (Aditya Roy Kapoor who played a Pakistani musician in London Dreams ,2009), refuses to marry his girlfriend because he has been seeing his father Kisan (Akshay) and mother Mala (Aishwarya Rai Bachchan) fight each other ever since he was born. Whenever he is proposed for marriage, the thought alone haunts him.
One day, his girlfriend’s grandfather (Randhir Kapoor) introduces Bunty to his new invention – a time machine that can actually take you to the past and correct the mistakes done then. Bunty gets into it and goes back in time when their parents met for the first time.
The rest of the story revolves around the son trying to change his bespectacled geek look-alike father into a macho stud and a rude and mean mom into a loving wife. The plots that follow are both funny and overdone.
The entire look of the film is set back to 1975. While the director’s effort in getting the feel of the period is worth mentioning, not all his attempts are justified, as the costumes that the actors carry are not exactly what the real actors of the time used to put on. The vibrant color the film is rich with is also not exactly what the films of those times had. Nonetheless, given the lighter vein in which the film is made, minor mistakes can definitely be overlooked.
Ancient advertisements, backdrops, ancient hoarding boards made a part of the set by the filmmaker make it a thrill to watch, especially for those from that era.
Akshay Kumar stands out in his part both as a geek and a macho stud. Aishwarya is stunning at times while looks a little too old at times. VJ turned actor Aditya Roy Kapoor has a long journey in Bollywood as he can really go close to his character. Pritam’s music is enthralling and catchy.
Though for a short period of time, Randhir Kapoor delivers his best as a professor.
Sometimes, the film takes you to an extremely hilarious trip with the dialogues of Rajpal Yadav and the character of Mahesh Kumar who can sing in two voices while at times the director puts in a lot of effort to spread the laughing gas, but fails in the face of exaggeration.
Despite the fact that film misses many opportunities that it could have grabbed to be outstanding, Action Replayy is a total paisa-wasool, however.
Screening at Central Cinema and Kumari Cinema Hall.
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