Action Replayy

After watching loads of good, bad and ugly movies, I always think to write reviews on them. Well I am starting with this film"Action Replayy"

The moment I watched the trailer of this film, I instantly knew that it must be a bad rip off from Robert Zememkis' 1985 film, "Back to the Future". But I still had a nano hope because of Vipul Shah. I was totally wrong, hope to watch a good Hindi film is still a hope here. That's why nobody recognizes Indian cinema.

The story is about Siddharth Roy Kapoor, who is playing Akshay Kumar's son, is going back in 70's to change his parent's bad relationship in a small time machine (Again that machine is a pirated version of Simon Well's "The Time Machine"). In the past he has to do a major make over of his father so that his urban chic mother, playing by Aishwarya Roy will marry him. There again he meets baddie Ranvijay, who also has love interest towards Aishwarya. Now Siddharth's job is to reunite his parent as well as create some love and caring towards each other otherwise he won't be born in future.

First of all let me tell about the story, screenplay and dialogs. "Action Replayy" has more plot holes than Mumbai's potholes. Songs are more frequent than local trains. There are no humors, and dialogs are unusually flat. I will blame Mr Vipul Shah for this movie and spending so much money without reading the script.

After doing loads of bad films, with Action Replayy", Akshay Kumar again proved that he is still the king of bad films. With same acting style, same devil like laugh and same comedies, Akshay has still maintained his (bad) continuity. Aishwarya looks stunning with her 70's look. Her acting is good. Siddharth has to learn about acting. Neha Dhupia is wasted and Ranvijay is promising.

If you are planning to watch this for fun then go with your own super risk. But I will recommend you watch "Back to the Future" to get some real fun ride.

I was hoping for a lot more when i first saw the trailers and promos. But i was wrong. The movie was alright, nothing great.

Akshay Kumar was very good as always, he is always 1st class in a comic role.

Aishwarya Rai B was looking amazing in all the 60s costumes and hair, acting was very good from her too.

But the film overall was not worth it, i mean it is worth watching once and they should be for the great performance from both Akshay Kumar and Aishwarya Rai B.

Music was decent, nothing great.

My review on Action Replayy: 5/10

The film by Vipul Amrutlal Shah, based on the 1994 Gujarati play Action Replay, reminds you of Robert Zemeckis' Back to the Future, only that the narrative isn't as tightly woven, and the time travel element and danger kept to a bare minimum, other than being a plot device to bring Bunty (Aditiya Roy Kapoor) back to March 1975 before his parents Kishen aka Kitchen Kumar the hotel restaurateur (Akshay Kumar) and Mala (Ash) got married. They had spent the last 33 years in a never-ending bicker, putting up false pretences at times, while at other times just let it rip in public or in front of their restaurant employees. This culminates in their wedding anniversary celebrations, where a decision is made to go their separate ways. Not wanting that to happen, Bunty conveniently hijacks a time machine belonging to his girlfriend's uncle, who just so happens to be a scientist, believing that if his parent's arranged marriage was instead a love marriage, things will turn out a lot better.

The main gist centers on the virtues of a love marriage, which is still something of a taboo back in those days, where arranged marriages were the norm. Some will argue of course that you'll grow to love someone when things get arranged, but in this case, it reflects on what if the marriage turned out to be sour from the start? And as Bunty soon finds out, the characters of his parents cannot be at more odds with each other, his dad being the cowardly bucktoothed teenager who gets frequently bullied by his Dad (Om Puri) and peers, including that of Mala, who's a headstrong, bold tomboy lacking feminine grace, exuding a steely exterior and up to her fair share of shenanigans with her gang that includes Kundan (Rannvijay Singh) whose affections for her will be one of the major obstacles Bunty and Kishen have to overcome.

It is manipulation of the first order, where the first half deals with how Bunty creates desire between the two enemies, trying to turn them into lovebirds. But here's where the story fails big time, tackling this in rather choppy instances with large plot gaps forgotten to be filled out, especially how Bunty becomes major chums with both his dad and mum (and his grandparents for that matter as well) despite literally appearing out of nowhere. While I understand a song and dance had taken care of this, I still felt it was rather hastily done just to get that cumbersome development out of the way. And hasty is probably the word most apt in putting aside logistics such as clothing and money, in how a boy from the 21st century doesn't stick out like a sore thumb, and conveniently too goes back to the future in what turned out to be yet a hasty wrap up of the film that does the emotional core of Bunty great disservice in his about turn and attitudes toward marriage.

Thankfully things start to pick up in the second half where the Kishen undergoes a major exterior makeover to woo the girl of his manipulated dreams, and becomes that suave lady killer, although always shaking on the inside once his game is over, which lead to numerous opportunities for mirth which does get tired after a while, despite great comedic timing by Akshay Kumar, spouting what I suspect would probably be a popular catch phrase amongst the younger crowd when they emerge from the theatres. The plot after the interval will probably irk feminists out there, as it suggests that girls get easily taken over by those with the bad boy image, and who will fall for the many manipulative games the guys play on them. There never was a real threat experienced in a way despite competition from Kundan who can sing in two voices, because the time travel paradox doesn't seem to kick in on Bunty each time Kishen and Mala seem to drift emotionally further apart which would have threatened his existence.

Action Replayy marks the reigning Queen of Bollywood's third release (out of four) this year with the likes of Raavan starring opposite her real life husband and Endhiran with Superstar Rajnikanth, and her role here is quite unlike those that I've seen before, since her Mala is mostly displaying negative traits at least for the beginning of the film, before succumbing back to a vulnerable, wistful lass who thinks Kishen does not like her for her meanness displayed earlier. I thought she had lighten up the film thanks to a refreshing portrayal of a spoilt and bratty teenager who doesn't tolerate nonsense from her peers, but dishes some of her own on unsuspecting, weaker folks like Kishen.

As with most Indian films, the song and dance numbers are perhaps what saved the film from becoming a bore. Retro is in, as seen from the success of Once Upon a Time in Mumbai, and this factor cannot be ignored as the filmmakers here have recreated costumes and sets reminisce of the time, aided by special effects to recreate the landscapes from the past. But if you were to treat this as a time travel film, then the paradoxes here are just tremendous to be ignored. So the best bet to enjoy this is to accept the plot device for what it is, and to marvel at the performances of the stars and the beautiful retro look and feel instead. I wished the story could have been more coherently delivered though, and the English subtitles should have been more in sync for the first 20 minutes.

This movie lacks seriousness. Everything is just so childish.

I don't know why Akshay Kumar is still making comedy movies. The worse part is that they are very predictable, and the ideas are stolen from Hollywood movies!! His comedy movies are just not funny!!!! The story line is weak, poor acting specially Aishwarya Rai which made me very disappointed. And what's with the bad spelling with the title? and the other thing which made me laugh (they didn't intend to make the viewer laugh) is the bad spelling in one song, just to make ladies rhyme with men they made it "MANS"! His movies are really getting low in quality. As a fan of Akshay I wish he would raise the bar of his target viewer. In conclusion this movie will remain a scar in Bollywood movies record, don't watch it.