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Set in 1795 in the pre-colonial India, this revenge saga chronicles the battle waged by a band of rebels against the British traders who are out to plunder and loot the country.
See more videos at https://gulfnews.com/videos
Set in 1795 in the pre-colonial India, this revenge saga chronicles the battle waged by a band of rebels against the British traders who are out to plunder and loot the country.
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00:00Hi, this is Manjusha Radhakrishnan from Gulf News Tabloid
00:03and I've just been to watch the Bollywood Diwali Festival release,
00:06Thugs of Hindustan.
00:13Starring Amitabh Bachchan, Aamir Khan, Fatima Sana Shaikh and Katrina Kaif,
00:18it is a star-powered vehicle.
00:19Now, before you venture out into the movies,
00:21there are a few ground rules that you need to keep in mind.
00:24Firstly, you need to scrub away the thought that
00:27Thugs of Hindustan is the poorer and cheaper cousin
00:31of Hollywood's epic blockbuster Pirates of the Caribbean.
00:35And secondly, you need to scrub away the thought or erase from your mind
00:38that Aamir Khan is trying to ape Jack Sparrow,
00:42played brilliantly by Johnny Depp.
00:44Now, if you have these two misgivings stuck away firmly in your head,
00:48then you're likely to enjoy or at least sit through
00:51the painfully predictable adventure saga, Thugs of Hindustan.
00:56Set in 1795, this movie chronicles a band of rebels
01:00spearheaded by Amitabh Bachchan's character, Kudabaksh,
01:04from freeing themselves from the clutch of British traders.
01:08Now, British traders, as always in any movie that has
01:12British traders as colonisers,
01:14they are reduced to very wimpy characters.
01:18Now, you look at all the villains in this movie,
01:20which is they are mostly British,
01:22and they speak Hindi with a weird accent.
01:24That's a pet peeve of mine.
01:25I wish they would just stick to English while speaking to each other.
01:28I mean, why would British nationals speak to each other in Hindi is beyond me.
01:33So that sounds very contrived as well.
01:35And the fact that they're so gullible,
01:36how can the opponents not be worthy
01:39when they are armed with better weapons,
01:41when they have better know-how and resources with them?
01:44How can they be double-crossed by a band of rebels
01:48is something that defies logic.
01:50When Amitabh Bachchan is in a movie,
01:51you would expect him to do all the heavy lifting.
01:54But in this case, it's Aamir Khan who walks away with all the glory.
01:58It's his character that's most fun.
02:00And you can see how much fun he has with that character,
02:03whereas Amitabh Bachchan is reduced to someone
02:05who has to convincingly do the action sequences.
02:09It's not bad to watch,
02:10but after a point,
02:12watching him swing from ships and trees gets a bit tiring.
02:16When Aamir Khan is on the big screen,
02:17it's when the movie actually picks up pace
02:20and you feel like sitting up
02:21and actually taking notice of what's going on.
02:24Another thing that I thought was good was Fatima Sana Shaikh.
02:28You know her from Dangal,
02:29and I must say that as a warrior princess
02:31who's trying to avenge the death of her family,
02:34she's in good form as well.
02:36One of the biggest letdowns of this film is its predictable plot.
02:40I mean, even though this movie has so many brilliant stars,
02:43what I don't understand is that
02:45how they did not give any attention to the story.
02:48It is so predictable,
02:49as the weather in Dubai,
02:51it's always sunny.
02:51Similarly, it's so predictable
02:54that at times we were just looking at our phones
02:56and finding what to do,
02:57or checking Twitter,
02:58which is not a good sign.
02:59Then there is Katrina Kaif.
03:00Now, I think her sole purpose in this movie
03:03was to be a beautiful ornament.
03:05She dances like a dream,
03:07but she has very little to do.
03:09Her plump lips,
03:10I mean, I'm pretty sure this movie,
03:12which is set in 1795,
03:14Botox or lip plumpers were not invented then,
03:17and somehow Katrina Kaif seems to be,
03:20her lips and her hips seem to have a life of its own.
03:24There are certain predictable twists in the second half,
03:26which is just laugh out loud.
03:28In fact, there was a dance sequence towards the climax,
03:30which is just laughable.
03:32Why would any director or an actor,
03:34okay, that scene is beyond me
03:36because it did not serve any purpose.
03:38But having said that,
03:40I have to be fair to the movie.
03:42It is not as bad as the trailers.
03:45This is one of the films
03:46where it was heavily trolled.
03:47The moment the trailers dropped,
03:49it was heavily trolled and memes flew.
03:51Another shortcoming of this movie
03:53is the long-winded running time of this movie.
03:56It's nearly three hours long.
03:58And at the end of it,
03:59you feel as fatigued and as tired
04:02as the warriors who fought against the British.
04:05I'm going with three out of five.
04:07Now, let me explain this generous rating.
04:09I've given one star extra to Aamir Khan
04:12because he's the only bright spot
04:14in this otherwise mediocre film.
04:16This is Manjusha Radhakrishnan from Gulf News Tabloid
04:19and keep watching our reviews.