By Goher Iqbal Punn, Film Critic & Entertainment Analyst, Showbiz Bites
Producer: Puneet Prakash Mehra and Sumeet Prakash Mehra
Director: Apoorva Lakhia
Cast: Ram Charan Teja, Priyanka Chopra, Sanjay Dutt, Mahie Gill and Prakash Raj
Music: Anand Raj Anand & Others
Rating: [rating=3]
Amitabh Bachchan’s classic and iconic movie Zanjeer’s remake has well been in news. Since the day, the sequel was announced, it kept getting big ripples from all corners. We have been seeing many of Bollywood legend Amitabh Bachchan’s movies’ remakes in recent times. Well, the good thing is that these sequels turned out to be box office hits. Zanjeer is the latest one. One cannot forget the action-packed iconic 1973’s Zanjeer starring Amitabh Bachchan, Jaya Bachchan, Pran, Bindu and Ajit. Attempting a sequel of a big film is not an easy task. But Apoorva Lakhia made it happen with gusto.
Zanjeer is not a ditto scene to scene copy of the original rather it carries the present day setup to live up to the taste and expectations of today’s audiences. The characters and the overall concept of the movie are same – you will find Inspector Vijay Khanna, Sher Khan, Mala, Teja and Mona Darling in the film. If you are going to make comparisons with the original, then you might get a bit disappointed since the original is far more brilliant than the sequel. Thus, you should not go for making any kind of comparisons. Just watch the movie to get entertained.
Slipping into the immortal characters is obviously a very hard task to do and particularly slipping into the shoes of Amitabh Bachchan’s role is not a simple thing to do. Therefore, it was the biggest challenge and very tough job for Ram Charan to enact the character of Amitabh Bachchan. And the south actor has no doubt proved his histrionics.
Vijay (Ram Charan) gets transfer order once again due to his chase of underworld people. He is an honest police officer who wants to clean the system from the corrupt people. Vijay has been appointed to a case for which Mala (Priyanka Chopra) is the key eyewitness of a murder done by the gang of Teja (Prakash Raj). Mala refuses to cooperate, but Vijay convinces her to give the statement against Teja’s gang. He gives her protection at his home and soon realizes that he is falling for her. Sher Khan (Sanjay Dutt) does a business of illegal cars’ buying and selling. But soon he becomes Vijay’s friend who can do anything for him.
As mentioned earlier that the film is not a scene to scene copy of the movie, but the overall essence is same. The writing is strapping and gripping, but nonetheless carries few blemishes such as girls’ characters have not been made as convincing as they should have been. Suresh Nair has written the screenplay for the film. Apoorva Lakhia has done brilliance in terms of execution of the movie on screen. Action is simply awesome and raises the blood-flow in veins. Javed Ejaz deserves distinction points for this job. Editing is fine. Cinematography by Gururaj is fabulous. Dialogues deserve special mention as well. Music is not a treat for the music lovers. There is hardly any hummable track in the album.
Ram Charan has delivered the goods with aplomb and he impresses in the role of Amitabh Bachchan. Priyabka Chopra as Mala is fine. Sanjay Dutt as Sher Khan is wonderful. Prakash Raj is first rate as a villain. Mahie Gill is just okay as Mona Darling. Rest of the cast is good to watch also.
Final Verdict:
On the whole, Zanjeer is an entertaining action-packed flick. Just watch to get a dose of entertainment and don’t go to make comparison with the original.