Movie Review: Heropanti
Star Cast: Tiger Shroff, Kriti Sanon, Prakash Raj, Vikram Singh
Director: Sabbir Khan
Ratings: 1/2 star
Boy looks at girl. Boy falls for girl. Girl?s father growls. Boy scowls. Girl howls. And I?m left sobbing into my popcorn.
As you can see, I’ve had quite a time at ‘Heropanti’, which presents a couple of gormless debutants? Jackie?s son Tiger Shroff as the hero and Kriti Sanon as the heroine? in a story that is objectionable at so many levels that I gave up counting.
It?s set in ?Jatland?. Yes, that?s what they call it in the film. Which gives them the excuse to present its women as ?goongi gudiyas? and its men as patriarchal bullies. The plot seems ripe to expose the evils of the Khap and its pernicious ways: not allowing women to choose their partners while giving the men of the family, and every passerby, a free hand to beat and humiliate them, and as a parting shot, to kill them.
But the way ?Heropanti? does it, giving full play to the father (Prakash Raj) and his cohorts, as they punch hapless brides and grooms to pulp, it seems like a championing of the Khap cause. Every time a girl was slapped, or yanked around by the hair, the people sitting alongside me tittered.
Bablu (Tiger Shroff) and Dimpy (Kriti Sanon) tread the tired paths Bollywood has ordained for young lovers for the past twenty five years: he?s the ?dulha? and has to make off with his ?dulhaniya?, but not before the mandatory song-and-dance and `rona-dhona?. Tiger has a fine set of ripped muscles which he shows off in shirtless scenes. He does a good job of wiping off blood off his chin, and holding off goons. He can do action, sure. But you are also required to say your lines and romance your girl : did no one think of those crucial things?
Raj keeps forgetting he?s meant to be a Jat, and slipping into his real voice. He gets to make emotional speeches and shed tears too: we share his feelings, because he?s the only real actor in this enterprise.
Is this all they can think of in the name of a fresh love story?
shubhra.gupta@expressindia.com
