Had Akshay Kumar’s Boss been released in 1983 (or earlier than that), it would have been a smash hit – it didn’t have a heroine to begin with, had loads of action scenes, had a long-lost brother formula, a hero with a heart of gold and villains that are despised even by their own family members. But its 2013 and viewers will not allow a weak plot and a screenplay full of coincidences to succeed, and that’s what contributed to this masala entertainer’s downfall.

Boss goes like this…

Just like Amitabh Bachchan’s Deewar and many other movies from the 70s and the 80s, there is a righteous school teacher Satyakant Shastri (Mithun Chakraborty) and his two sons – Surya (Akshay Kumar) and Shiv (Shiv Pandit). Surya is expelled from the family for his bad ways, whereas Shiv turns out to be a do-gooder. Surya saves the life of another do-gooder (read: gangster with a golden heart) Big Boss (Danny Denzengopa), thus becoming his right hand man, one who does all his ‘dirty’ work. Things take a turn for the worse when 15 years later (why is it always 15 years later!) Shiv gets involved with Ankita (Aditi Rao Hydari), the doe-eyed sister of corrupt police official Ayushman Thakur (Ronit Roy), and pyar main trounces the son of a powerful politician (Govind Mandeo). Khiladi bhayya is asked to intervene and he saves the day by doing what he does best – be himself!

Boss fights, dances and wins hearts!

Akshay Kumar fights from the moment he enters the movie till the very last shot. In between, he dances to some of the very loud songs (and some better numbers like the remixed version of the Jaanbaaz song, ‘Har Kisi Ko Nahi Milta’) and deliver dialogues that could only suit him. Gimmicks like the growing of a plant where he drops his sweat, the lines written on his body for the other character to escape, his fight sequence during a trip to a dargaah with his family and the roof-top chase -  all give Akshay fans something to cheer about.

There are a few things that could have been improved in the movie. When Akshay’s character makes his entry, he couldn’t fight when the music isn’t being played. But this interesting device is dropped altogether in the other scenes where he delivers roundhouse punches and high kicks,  beating the baddies so bad, that they don’t even recognize themselves.

Dialogues are good, bad and ugly!

Sajid-Farhad may not be Salim-Javed but they do give lines that leave the theatre with you. While ‘Boss is always right’ is not an original dialogue, ‘Boss ka khoon bolta nahi kholta hai, aur jab yeh kholta hai to yeh ek ek ko phodta hai’ would have seemed fit ahead of a fight in the 80s. Similarly, ‘Beech main na bol’ looks so much like ‘Yeh kya hai, Chappal; Kaun si, Kohlapuri’ from Amitabh Bachchan’s Suhaag and the ‘Tujh jaise zehar ko marne k liye zehar hi kaam ayega’ seems a lift from ‘loha hi lohay ko kaatta hai’ from Sholay! The only worthwhile dialogue ‘Apne ko kya hai..apne ko sirf pani nikalna hai’ is used repeatedly and looks well onscreen, be it Akshay’s character sweating, drinking water from a well or breaking a coconut on the head of a thug who operates on the ‘wrong’ side of the law!

And then there is the ensemble cast!

Boss may be an Akshay Kumar-vehicle but there are others who also must be mentioned for their ‘performances’. TV star Ronit Roy’s acting must also be commended, for he tries to match the Khiladi at every step and makes you hate him with his terrifying look and dialogues like ‘Maut ko toh yunhi badnaam karte hain, takleef toh zindagi deti hai.’ Brrrrrr!

Character actors Mithun da, Danny Denzengopa and Prakshit Sahini, who hardly disappoint these days with their flawless performances, also did a believable job, although expecting the ‘Disco Dancer’ to do well as a retired school teacher was not what I expected. Comedian Johnny Lever doesn’t appear in movies as often as he did in the 90s but whenever he does, he makes you smile and that’s what he does with his bungling policeman’s role, which is quite pivotal to the plot (or it was his uniform that played an important part!).

Newcomer Shiv Pandit doesn’t disappoint but he pales in comparison against Akshay Kumar who is two decades his senior in movies. Aditi Rao Hydari is as forgettable as she has been in all her movies (except for Murder 3, maybe) and one doesn’t understand why she even agrees to play roles that have nothing to do with the story, or nothing to offer as well. There were guest appearances by Mukesh Tiwari, Shakti Kapoor, Sonakshi Sinha and Prabhu Deva but those too had nothing to do with the story, nothing at all!

Boss is a rollercoaster ride that goes bust!

Boss may be a remake of the Malayalam film Pokkiri Raja, but remaking a successful film doesn’t guarantee a hit.  Director Anthony D’Souza hasn’t learn much from his failed maiden venture Blue and doesn’t achieve the expected success with Boss which has a good cast, better dialogues and stunning locations. He forgot to work on the story (again!) which

was tried, tested and so foreseeable that one could have predicted the end with their eyes closed. Better luck next time, D’Souza, you might get third time lucky with Akshay ‘the Khiladi’ Kumar if he agrees to play alongside you!

The writer works for Geo TV and can be contacted at omair78@gmail.com

*CINEMATIC SUICIDE
**FORGETTABLE
***WATCHABLE
****COLLECTIBLE
*****AWARD-WORTHY