Action Replayy

This is a comedy classic. Don't believe the reviews! If you have a sense of humour, and like heart warming stories, watch it!! Trust me

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 feel that I'm being quite generous on my rating of 7/10, as I was expecting a lot from Action Replayy and it did not live up to those standards. With Akshay Kumar playing a lead role, I was expecting gut-bursting laughs, and thankfully, that has fulfilled it's promise. I found the humour to be the saving grace in the movie, and there are laughs. I would not call them gut-bursting laughs, but there were many comical moments that evolved into a hearty laugh from me. Akshay did not disappoint.

The plot is basically non-existent, and is loosely adapted from Robert Zemeckis's genius "Back to the Future". Sadly Action Replayy is not in the same realm in the slightest. It's sad that BTTF has to be linked to this as it is a poor adaptation of a classic movie. The lack of plot is the key factor which lets the film down. In addition, the film is quite jumpy and many important details are left unexplained, confusing the viewer.

The casting is well done, although I never would have placed Neha Dhupia in her role of Mona. I feel she has the talent capacity of a grape, and was not wrong as she was just a pretty face in the movie. Akshay was lovable and funny, and the physical transformation we see him in is hilarious. He makes a fantastic geek. Aishwarya as his love interest was an interesting choice - they have not been seen together on screen for a while and I was curious to see the outcome. She looks stunning on screen, the 1970s style and attire suits her brilliantly and she looks very much like a Hindi Film heroine from that era. Her performance was satisfactory, I enjoyed her in the role of Mala, and there's no denying she performed well, if we excuse some overacting. Rannvijay Singh as Kundanlal was irksome and brings out a lot of the comedy in the movie - he was a great villain. Rajpal Yadav as always, made me laugh. However the most striking piece of the puzzle was the newcomer Aditya Roy Kapoor as the protagonist Bunty. He's very appealing and for one of his first few films I'd say he did a good job. There were points where I found him quite irritating but it was more the fault of the poor screenplay and lack of storyline. Bunty screaming "Woo Hoo!" at seeing his parents fall in love, made me cringe immensely, but I hold this more to the script and not him. Kirron Kher and Om Puri are wasted, but as usual play their parts par excellence as expected. And there is even another fresh face playing Bunty's love interest Tanya.

I loathed the "time machine" scenes because they were done with about the effort of a five-year old. We were told the bare minimum about the time machine and the CGI-travelling-through-time sequence is terrible. I also found the music less catchy than what I expected, and some of the lyrics are terrible - "all my ladies and my mans, and my mans and all my ladies!" - there were very few good quality musical bits.

Action Replayy is a flawed film, with it's plot (or lack of) being the main letdown, but I still wouldn't say this film is not worth watching. As much as I didn't want to, I did find the humour amusing and there are definitely laughable moments in the film. Action Replayy is more lighthearted than anything, and should be seen with an open mind and low expectations. This is good for a lazy evening in, but don't watch this expecting a great cinematic experience, because it's not that sort of film. If you're looking for an easy laugh, however, this could be it.

Bollywood directors are experimenting in a rather harmless manner nowadays, and Action Replayy is the result of such an attempt from Vipul Shah, who entertained us with Namastey London and disappointed us with London Dreams in the previous years. However, Action Replayy is much much better than the boring London Dreams. In fact, it is entertaining and good. Moreover, the movie comes up with a pleasant surprise, Aditya Roy Kapoor. He is that type of typical bollywood guy, with his cute and innocent looks, and he is so lucky to get such a long role in such a big film. He performs equally, or even more than Akshay Kumar, in every sequence. In fact, he is the real hero of the movie. So, the movie is about a son travelling back to 1970s to set his parents' marriage alright. A lot of questions of plagiarism come along with the subject of travelling through time, but I never felt any resemblance with any other movie, this is original work, IMO. There are many flaws in the movie, but still it is enjoyable, with an interesting screenplay and good performances. Also, the songs are good, even though few of them are not properly placed. There are lot of entertaining moments throughout the film, some of them are very good. The performances are good, and Aditya Roy Kapoor is on the top amongst all. Akshay Kumar and Aishwarya Rai Bachchan are good, so as Rannvijay Singh, Om Puri, Kirron Kher, Neha Dhupia, Rajpal Yadav etc. One big letdown is the ending of the movie, the credits begin to roll up so quickly, there should have been a proper ending. May be editor's mistake!!

On the whole, it is a good movie, definitely worth a watch.

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.