Bang Bang Movie Review - Bang on the Buck

Ameet Bhuvan

There is nothing cerebral about Bang Bang. On the face of it, there is a loosely tied together “reworking” of the tepid Tom Cruise starrer Knight and Day; with some bad acting by Katrina and some thrilling action set pieces. Yet, there is not a moment in the film when one is bored. Director Siddharth Anand’s remake is the best harmless fun you have had at the movies this year. 

Hrithik is running away from the bad guys trying to protect a very precious Kohinoor diamond. He bumps into a bank receptionist Katrina Kaif. She is swooned by his charm (trust me, she is not the only one Hrithik captivates) and inevitably joins in his chases. The result is a series of action pieces with liberal amounts of car chases, bombings, bullets and guns - in short a lot of chaos. Hrithik makes her believe he is a good guy, which he definitely is not. So what does she do? That is the crux of the film. 

Siddharth reworked the original action thriller into a quintessential Bollywood romance. Mandatory falling in love happens and then the betrayal and the reunion, all of which in all honesty spoilt the real fun of watching a film like Bang Bang for me. Yet, I am not complaining that much, for I never expected anything more than a wafer thin plot line in the first place. Story is not what you come to watch this film for. This film should be watched for its lead pair. 

Hrithik and Katrina smoulder the screen like nobody’s business. They have this sizzling sexual chemistry going on, which obviously doesn't translate into anything more than a few intimately choreographed songs, and make your heart melt (or go racing, depending on who of the two you are rooting for). 

Katrina cannot act, but here she is relying more on her sizzling screen presence and she does a marvellous job of it. Hrithik on the other hand, is quite a handful of charm , raw magnetism and absolute dancing magic. He is sincere in pulling off those crazy action sequences (thanks to Andy Armstrong from The Amazing Spiderman) and when he dances, well the world comes to a standstill. It has been a while since we saw the man relish a role on screen this much and a lot of why one should see this film is Hrithik. 

Having said that, the film doesn't take its lead for granted- it supports them with some brilliant cinematography and seriously foot tapping music (Vishal Shekhar in form after quite a bit). Here is one film where the songs do not make any sense to the bigger picture, but are so lovely that you never mind. 

Bang Bang is the new age masala offering that Bollywood should be churning out more of - a typical festival outing with family and friends to just enjoy and have a gala time. Go catch this at the theaters for sure. 

Rating: 3/5