Genuinely smart action thriller
Director: AR Murgadoss
Cast: Akshay Kumar, Sonakshi Sinha, Sumeet Raghavan, Farhad and Govinda
A smart film is the perfect antidote to the foolish emotions and forced comedy. Just goes to show that a sound script can offset any amount superficiality. That’s rental for you. This makes the best of your ordered content, using superlative skills of parkour and martial arts Akshay Kumar and elegant entertaining and fascinating three hours.
Holiday is a remake of the Tamil film Thuppakki. What is different is that Akshay Kumar brings more style arrogance and South superstar Vijay. And then there are those amazing acrobatics and martial arts skills of Akshay. His larger than life character adds the enthusiasm to do Hindi films friendly audience. As for the story, Akshay Kumar is an Army captain who has come to Mumbai on a vacation of 40 days. His family has marriage plans and that’s where Sonakshi Sinha’s character comes in. And while regular love-hate relationship develops between the hero and heroine, the hero also deals with terrorists plan to launch an all out attack in Mumbai.
The track of the history in which the army guy outsmart ingenious cunning terrorist does wonders for vacation. Writing makes great use of the sleeper cell concept contemporary terrorism and uses it to create truly intelligent emotions. The way the character of Akshay Kumar plans out countermeasures to terrorist plans is spectacularly intelligent. It is a welcome change to have a genuine job movie logic to forward his narrative. It is true to the extent that fist fights between the hero and the bad are not stretched more and more. Some efficient kicks and punches to the ribs knockdown opponents. You blink and it’s over. Just the way it happens in real life. The scene in which Akshay Kumar gets in the way of Liam Neeson in the terrorist hideout is a refreshing change of style of action movies in hindi. It’s quick, it’s brave and is a very nice piece.
For all its technical ingenuity, a movie rental remains at the mercy of their stars. Akshay Kumar and Sonakshi Sinha are the lead pair. There’s even a cameo for Govinda. And as expected with big movie stars, they bring in the distinctive styles of their actions. There are no restrictions, without subtracting subtle importance, but the most orthodox over-the-top bravado found in commercial films. And it is the exaggerated sense of style that can irritate you. If you do not like Akshay Kumar, Sonakshi Sinha and Govinda. And if you feel irritated by the sight, he was whining away to glory in this function. Too bad the director AR Murgadoss chose rookie Farhad as the antagonist principle. I should have just stuck to the villain of the original Tamil film. Vidyut Jamwal lock horns with Akshay Kumar would have been a sight to behold.
But if you do not have that prejudice, then a vacation can be a real thrill ride. Murgadoss handles this film like a pro. He has complete control over his story, screenplay and dialogues. He knows what he wants to do every frame and does it with clinical precision. The only place where your vision falters is unnecessary romance, comedy and gags that keep popping up and diluting the intensity of this action thriller.
As most Indian masala movies, Holiday tastes better with a generous pinch of salt. Akshay Kumar’s face looks too old to be a young army captain. But the way jumping over cars and moves down the sides of the building is a feat even the fittest 20 year olds can only dream of. He is the soul of this film. He makes it fun. He gives you your money’s worth. At the end of the day, that’s all that matters.