Movie Review- COMMANDO - A ONE MAN ARMY

I arrive at a single screen theatre at 8:40 a.m. I see a long queue of people waiting for their turn. I am shocked. Okay, I did expect the film to take a fair opening but never expected a film, which stars no A-lister, to open to an almost packed house (that too, morning show) . Some people star coming out of the queue as they, seeing the number of people queuing up, gauge that they are most unlikely to get a ticket and hence, decide not to waste any more time. I do the same deciding to go to the only multiplex in the city hoping to get tickets there. I stop by a petrol pump and just as I am rummaging through my bag to find my wallet, while sitting on the bike, my right leg accidentally touches the burning hot silencer of the bike which in turn leaves a gash on my leg tearing my skin apart. For a moment, I think of going back home but the movie bug within me refuses to let me do so. Finally, after some water and band aid, I rush towards my destination. The box office, at the multiplex, is anything but crowded. I heave a sigh of relief. After buying a ticket, I rush to the fourth floor of the mall where the theatre is situated. Getting inside Screen No. 3, I see an occupancy of 50-60 %. Not great but not bad either. The movie starts at 9:20 a.m.

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The opening reels show Captain Karan Vir Dobra (Vidyut Jamwal) being interrogated and tortured by Chinese Military Officials - a far cry from what we saw of him in the promos in which he takes on a dozen of goons single handedly.The Indian Army, under pressure from unscrupulous politicians, erase Karan's army record as they beleive that The Chinese Government will not beleive any proof that they show of Karan belonging to the Indian Army. After spending a year in jail, Karan manages to escape. As Karan crosses the Himachal-Punjab border, he runs into Simrit Kaur ( Pooja Chopra) who is being chased by the baddie Amrit Singh's ( Jaideep Ahlawat) henchmen. From here onwards, Vidyut flaunts his exceptional action skills in a series of action sequences that occur at regular intervals. It wouldn't be wrong to say that the script ( Ritesh Shah ), though good, leaves a lot to be desired. In this case, a well thought out idea fails to translate into a coherent script. For instance, the chase continues for too long. Moreover, Karan's track is sidelined in favour of Simrit's. For instance, there is no interaction of Karan with the politician or with the Chinese Government even as the film comes to an end. How does he or for that matter General Akhilesh Sinha ( Darshan Jariwala) help him prove his innocence to the Chinese Government?

'Commando' rests on the strong shoulders of  Vidyut Jamwal who makes a successful transition from a 'villain' to a 'hero'. The Hindi Cinema audience had never seen an action hero like him before. He is brilliant and absolutely perfect in the jaw dropping action sequences and delivers in the acting department too. He may have not been blessed with conventional 'hero' looks but can go a long distance depending on the kind of roles he chooses-the ones that would suit him. The fact that he is a good dancer ( the glimpses of which one saw in 'Lut Jawan' ) would work to his advantage. After a minuscule role in 'Heroine' and a couple of films down south, Pooja Chopra makes a very confident full fledged debut in Hindi Cinema with this film. She looks ravishing throughout the film and delivers a performance which shines in a film dominated my male actors. While one may argue that her character (Simrit Gaur ) has shades of Geet ( the character that Kareena Kapoor played in 'Jab We Met' ), Pooja breathes life into this character who though bubbly, talkative and vivacious, exhibits undeterred courage and boldness. Jaideep Ahlawat (as AK 74/Amrit Kanwal), playing a menacing villain who keeps the system 'in his pocket', delivers the best performance of the film. Whether he is removing his shades to show his 'pupil-less' eyes or cracking up SMS jokes, he is terrific in each and every frame of the movie. Darshan Jariwala (as General Akhilesh Sinha ) does not have much to do but being the great actor actor that he is, he lights up every scene he appears in. 

Dilip Ghosh, who has directed several ad dilms in the past, makes an assured debut  as a feature film director. A better script would do justice to his directorial abilities. Commando' largely benefits from Sejal Shah (DOP) and action director Franz Sphilhaus. The camerawork is outstanding to say the least. This is easily one of her best work. Franz Sphilhaus clearly raises the bar and raises it very high for the Indian action directors as he has choreographed the best action sequences one has ever seen in a Hindi film. The dialogues are the kind that would entice one to clap and whistle-brilliant! Music [ Mannan Shah ] is strictly average. The placements of the songs, except for 'Lena Dena' could not have been worse. The 'item number' [Mungda],especially, works as a speed breaker and is tuneless. The picturisation of 'Saawan Bairi' is brilliant though. The background score [ Prasad Sashte ] is effective. The editing [ Amitabh Shukla ] is crisp.

'Commando' is a film that needs to be watched for the absolutely brilliant action sequences that leaves one spellbound. One had never witnessed such raw and edgy action before. Sure, Vipul Amrutlal Shah's earlier production 'Force' did offer such action but only in bits and pieces. 'Commando' takes the Action genre, in Hindi films, to an altogether different level.

Almost two years ago, producer Vashu Bhagnani, known for adopting unique promotional strategies for his films, declared that the music of his then upcoming film 'F.A.L.T.U' would not see a physical release (CDs/Cassettes) for itself. While some raised eyebrows at this statement, others lauded his decision to do so as they felt it would curb down the rate of music piracy. That's another thing that Mr. Bhagnani did release the Music CDs exclusively at a leading music retail chain (Planet M) sometime later.

        Piracy is a virus that has infected the Indian Film Industry in a rather big way in the last decade or so. I remember I was in second standard when a neighbour, few years older to me, who also was a close friend, had brought a CD which had many as 90+ songs at Rs.30 . I was shocked as I knew that Audio CDs come nowhere less than Rs. 100. The only Audio CD we had had then was that of 'Devdas' (Universal Music) which was priced at Rs. 75 (introductory price is what the CD Jacket screamed out). I preferred buying cassettes which used to cost between Rs.55-60. As I grew up, I learnt about piracy. Today, when piracy, in the Indian market, at its peak; when pirated CDs/VCDs/DVDs are being sold at the price of candies, how many people would actually feel 'morally correct' to buy original CDs/VCDs/DVDs at exorbitant prices. No, I am not someone who supports piracy. I detest it. But, at the same time, I wish to pose a question to the producers/music companies-'How many people can afford to buy or would be willing to shell out 100+ bucks to buy CDs/VCDs/DVDs?' These days more and more producers are releasing the music of their films exclusively on the internet,(case in point being Race 2, Jayanta Bhai Ki Luv Story) hoping to put across the music of their films by making the listener pay for it, in other words, to curb Piracy. I wonder HOW? Internet is the hub of piracy today. Films, music...everything gets uploaded on illegal/illegitimate websites making internet users to download the same from them absolutely free of cost. Of course, there are legal sites to download music/ films from, but the number of people visiting the illegal websites are far greater in number. Even if the producers release their music exclusively on the legal websites, within no time the same are available for download on illegal websites. Songs are recorded in 16 bits and are released on the Audio CDs as such. However, songs releasing in Mp3 format over the internet are far from such clarity. Thus, the listeners do not get to hear the songs in the highest order of quality. These days, most music companies release Audio CDs and Mp3 CDs (in which they pack in a bunch of bonus tracks, tracks from other films apart from that particular film at cheaper prices) almost simultaneously or a few weeks after the Audio CD has released. The ‘MP3’ CD’s (though original) sound quality is not half as great as the Audio CD, thus the price is lower than that of the latter.

        A major reason behind the rise of piracy is the higher pricing of original Music CDs. Most of the music companies sell Audio CDs at Rs. 150+. Of course, the price tends to be lower for lesser known films or films which the music company has lesser confidence in. Yash Raj Films went a step further by releasing the Audio of their film Dhoom 2 (2006) on DVDs(apart from CDs and Cassettes).The price was almost equal to a movie DVD (Rs.299).The aim was to offer the listeners sound quality of the highest order. The high priced DVDs did not find many takers. T-Series, in 2009, started selling music on USB Drives. The first film to have its music launched on USB Drive was ‘Blue’.’Main Aur Mrs. Khanna’, ’All The Best’, ’London Dreams’ followed. That meant if one bought five albums, then one would have a collection of five USB Drives. These ‘Audio Drives’ were priced at Rs.600+. No wonder, this idea failed too. A decade ago, Sanjay Leela Bhansali’s Devdas had made news for its music rights sold to Universal at an unheard sum of Rs. 12.5 crore. It is hard to imagine any music company paying that much amount to any producer these days as it would be impossible to recover such a huge amount through physical or even digital sales. ‘Kaho Na Pyaar Hai’ was the highest selling film soundtrack of the year 2000. It had sold approximately 80,00,000 units. A decade later ‘Dabangg’ stands out be the biggest selling soundtrack of the year (2010) and it sells just about 2,00,000 units. One can easily gauge the growth of piracy through this data. The only measure that can be taken in this regard is that prices of the Audio CDs (cassettes, anyways, have ceased to exist) should be lowered down. Eight years ago, Tips had priced the Audio CDs of Boney Kapoor’s ‘Bewafaa’ same as the cassettes, that is, Rs. 55. This was a very wise decision taken by the company and I am sure it bore fruits. Government needs to take strict measures against piracy. One often hears news of raids taking place in metros. However in small towns, you will come across music shops where you will not find a single original CD. There are hundreds of illegal websites thriving on the internet. These should be closed down. An artist works very hard to together a piece of art. Likewise, a musician, composer, lyricist, singer etc. works hard to put together an album or even just a song. It should not be made to ‘download’ free of cost. Their hard work should be bought and appreciated with one’s hard earned money.