By Gaurav Malani
Director: Anthony D’SouzaCast: Akshay Kumar, Ronit Roy,Mithun ChakravarthyThey say ‘the boss is alwaysright’. So when almost everythingabout the film is wrong,you are still not supposed toquestion anything. A generalviewer reaction to the mediocrityof this film was ‘what else doyou expect from a film like this?’So with the frequent flow ofsuch unapologetically self-proclaimedmindless action films,our basic expectations are sodownsized that even distastefuldishes have turned easily edible.Boss is a typical example of‘fast food’ flick. The action sequencesare tossed in slow-motionwhile the narrative cooks atbreakneck speed. Every ingredientfrom the stunt shot-takings,villain sidekicks and action directorsare reused to repetitiveeffect. It is simmered with theusual seasoning suspects of SonakshiSinha and Prabhu Deva.And finally garnished with HoneySingh songs and redone retronumbers. Yet the base recipe,which dates back to the 80s, isunoriginal and is rather derivedfrom South.Director Anthony D’Souzalast took us down the drain[oops deep-sea] in his underwateroffing Blue. He still strugglesto resurface here by makingAkshay Kumar repeat his character’scustom-made punch-lineapne ko toh bus ‘paani’ nikalnahain. Alas D’Souza is unable tosave the sinking ship this timeeither.The story sticks to everycliche from the old book ofpotboilers. There is a corruptminister. His debauched son isin love with the heroine. But theheroine’s love is the hero. Butthe heroine’s brother is the villain.And when the villain beatsthe hero, enters the big brotherwho is the big hero aka the boss.The side-hero [Shiv Pandit]and the side-heroine [Aditi RaoHydari] finish their portions inthe first act after which they aresidelined throughout. The Boss[Akshay Kumar] makes a delayedentry and then more thanmakes up for it by his overindulgencethroughout. The screenplayalternates between a fightsequence and a song numberand practically nothing muchhappening in between.You have to give it to AkshayKumar to be able to pull offhis tomfoolery with his casualcharm. However mundane theaction is and however predictablethe plot is, he still managesto bring in an element of unfussyfreshness to his character.Unfortunately he is unable tosinglehandedly bear the burdenof the entire film in absence offreshness and female lead.Aditi Rao Hydari goes intohiding after showing off in ared bikini. Shiv Pandit doesn’tget any scope either. MithunChakravarthy is theatrical. Dannyis functional. Govind Namdeohams as always. But it’s RonitRoy as the negative lead whoboasts of good screen presence.His character is, more or less,an extension of what he playedin Udaan but in a more formulaicsetup here. And thereby it’stoo sketchy rather than beingsketched properly.So once again while on oneside it’s said that the boss is alwaysright, on the other side notmany look up to a boss who isunable to look beyond himself.The choice is yours!
