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Star Cast: Athiya Shetty, Sooraj Pancholi
Director: Nikhil Advani
What’s Good: Hero is a complete throwback of the ‘Ek Gunda Ek IG Ki Beti Se Kaise Pyaar Kar Sakta Hai’ era. Contemporary times only make this film better since for 2015 – You get a hot chiseled bodied hero. Sooraj is a treat for his physique and action.
What’s Bad: Nikhil Advani misses out on presenting a completely entertaining plot. All the elements seem scattered and hence there is neither enough romance nor action nor drama. The screenplay is a little hotchpotch and that is what affects the film badly.
Loo Break: Second Half is a good time!
Watch or Not?: It’s watchable! There is nothing extraordinary about this film nor is anything trashable. It hangs mid-way with a decent story of the 1983 classic which is modernized but not all elements gel up to make it a great watch. It’s just another action-romance flick that you can enjoy as you while away your weekend.
User Rating:
With minor changes as per the changing times, the basic plot of Hero remains the same. Pasha (Aditya Pancholi) is held up in prison and is finding ways to irk the IG of police Shrikant Mathur (Tigmanshu Dhulia) who is responsible for his arrest. Sooraj (Sooraj Pancholi) is Pasha’s right hand whom he has grown up as a son. Sooraj is a local goon and on insistence of Pasha, he agrees to kidnap IG’s daughter for Pasha’s release. Pretending to be a police official who is sent for her security, Sooraj asks Radha (Athiya Shetty) to leave the town with him and his support staff for safety purposes.
Being the IG’s daughter, Radha is under the impression that her life is in danger and hence her father has sent Sooraj and his team. She happily agrees to accompany him. Even though she is being held captive, Sooraj never makes her realize that he is a kidnapper. His breath-taking looks and courteous behavior makes her fall in love with him. Sooraj too falls for Radha and eventually confesses the reality to her. On her supportive stand and persistence to fight for their love, Sooraj surrenders himself to the police and is imprisoned for two years. Radha is sent off to Paris for her further studies and with the hope that she will forget Sooraj by her strict dad.
Sooraj is granted a leave on parole for his behavioral improvement in the prison and is let off six months before. Radha returns to welcome him back and decides to help him become a better person so that she can convince her dad.
Will Sooraj reform himself as a better person? And will IG Mathur accept their love is what follows.
Hero Review: Script Analysis
Even though the new Hero is a cut-out of the 1983 classic, there are quite a lot of flaws that even contemporary times won’t forgive. For the older version of the film, it had everything going for it, the drama, the acting, the music and well for the newer one, it’s a hits and misses situation.
The problem lies in the writing department and unfortunately, the film rarely gives you dialogues which could make you hoot and whistle. Unlike today’s other films which are laden with punchlines, Hero lacks them. Another problem is the shoddily written characters. While Radha is on one hand a selfie-clicking instagram girl, her calling ‘eating non-veg’, ‘drinking alcohol’ and using cuss words as ‘gandi baatein’ is quite shocking and unnecessary for the times we live in. Especially with the meat ban issue so sensitive at the moment, someone saying having non-veg is ‘gandi baat’ in a Bollywood film irks me too!
Sooraj’s character is carved out too man-candy types and hence while you may drool over his abs and his ‘halka’ smile, he does not seem convincing enough as a goon or tapori sort of a guy, something which Jackie Shroff pulled off easily in the original. His character clearly lacks the edge in writing even though Pancholi makes up with his presence.
Flaws could be pinted out endlessly in the film and the writers give you many chances but it is the packaging that saves them as I could pass off a few considering its entertainment quotient every now and then.
Hero Review: Star Performance
It was the big debut for Sooraj Pancholi and well, with Salman Khan’s backing, the actor has turned out quite well. For a first timer, Sooraj makes the most of his opportunity. Yes, you do see his discomfort in certain scenes, especially when he has to share screen space with other actors except Athiya. But overall, with his physique and his action, Sooraj will definitely get more chances to prove how better a actor he is. P.S : I specifically loved the scenes where he cries. Rarely male actors are good at emoting sadness and well Sooraj is definitely not one of them. His crying act, touched my heart!
Athiya Shetty makes a debut as the chirpy, over-pampered Radha and well, I am not exactly happy with her performance. There is a lot of effort in her dialogue delivery to make it sound natural. In majority of scenes she pouts and one gets bored quite quickly with her not more than four expressions. She may have to toughen up a little to survive in an industry that has someone as effervescent as Alia Bhatt.
Tigmanshu Dhulia as IG Shrikant Mathur is decent enough. It is nice to see him play someone normal for a change than his other villainous roles. Not his fault but the writer’s miss in giving his character a depth which affects a little over his performance.
Aditya Pancholi is chosen to play Pasha and I am not quite happy with it. He completely misses the Amrish Puri charm and other than his name Pasha, there is nothing exciting to his character.
TV stars, Sharad Kelkar, Anita Hassanandani, Vivan Bhathena pull a good supporting cast in the film.
Hero Review: Music, Direction
One thing that Nikhil Advani does right and probably the most saleable thing in the film is Sooraj and Athiya’s affable chemistry. All the scenes involving their romantic moments have been handled deftly and they truly form some good moments in the film. But unfortunately while showing these good moments, the entire movie takes a back seat.
The second would definitely be the music. Even though in certain cases, the songs just pop up in the middle of the story, they are decently melodious enough to hold your attention.
What doesn’t work finely, is the action. In a lot of scenes, it is reminiscent of any South film and one particular scene where Sooraj dodges a bullet is a complete showcase of how amazing editing effects can be and it makes you cringe. One of the best stunt scene in the film is the bike jump over the bridge.
Cinematography is taut in the North locations and the picturesque locations make-up for the screenplay that is dilly dallying.
The film remains crisp in its run-time and that is one thing that needs to be lauded. Advani makes sure there is no waste of time and hence there is not much beating around the bush but hello! whoever though abrupt change of scenes in editing is completely wrong!
Hero Review: The Last Word
Hero is not Kal Ho Na Ho or D-Day, it is a rather faulty film made by the same director. Only half-entertaining, the film is more like a promotional video for Sooraj Pancholi and Athiya Shetty that doesn’t require a solid plot. Nonetheless, for Bollywood buffs this is a decent watch with great music and the typical ‘Hindi cinema’ storyline. I am going with a 2.5/5 for this film.
Hero Trailer
Hero releases on 11th September, 2015.
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