MOVIE REVIEW
movie review:
Rocky Handsome
U
napologetically gory and visceral, Rocky Handsome revels in relentless violence. But for a film
about a 'trained assassin' and his bonding with a
hapless child in desperate need of help, it is woefully low
on emotional muscle. The result is a slick, stylistically
derivative neo-noir thriller that is surprisingly humdrum.
A full-on rehash of a 2010 Korean action flick (The Man
from Nowhere), Rocky Handsome is set in a Goa where
criminal cretins crawl out of every conceivable crevice.
The film's sourpuss titular hero is a man possessed, a
"cleaner" in the manner of Luc Besson's Leon the professional, out to rid the city of undesirable elements. He
has to contend with a whole swarming jingbang - crime
lords, hitmen, drug dealers, illegal organ traders, child
traffickers.The insuperable protagonist swings into action and goes after the scumbags even as men from the
local anti-narcotics cell do their bit to crush the cartels.
But too many baddies and battlers botch up the broth
- and very badly at that.Although a meanie played by
director Nishikant Kamat, one half of a pair of ruthless
gangster-brothers, moves to the forefront in the film's climax, none of the bad guys emerges from the shadows
of ambiguity. The screenplay (adapted by Ritesh Shah)
takes inordinately long to provide clarity on the central
character and his professional and personal antecedents.On one rare occasion when he deigns to articulate
his thoughts, the hero declares: "Main sirf abhi ki sochta
hoon (I think only of the present)." He prefixes that assertion with a statutory warning of sorts: those who think of
tomorrow die today. He obviously has an issue with anguishing over the future, but the past does weigh heavy
on him. And that is what lies at the root of the demons
in his mind. A departed wife (Shruti Haasan in a special
cameo), an unborn child, a murderous attack and years
of lurking in undercover anonymity have scarred him for
life. For good measure, he has bullet and stitch marks
all over his ripped body. His rough knuckles bear signs
of many a bare-hands duel.But his face is conveniently
and miraculously unblemished. The only thing that mars
his inscrutable visage is a permanent scowl.Not that it
matters: the focus anyways is more on his pecs, biceps
and abs than on his facial expressions. It is fair to wonder if this film's heavy-weather feel stems more from the
impenetrable disposition of Kabir Ahlawat alias Rocky
Handsome or from the deadpan lead performance. A
suitably brawny John Abraham, who is also co-producer
of the film, is a sullen pawnshop owner who turns into an
unstoppable killer when a vicious gang of drug peddlers
abducts Naomi (Diya Chalwad), an eight-year-old girl he
has developed a soft corner for. The girl, Kabir's neigh-
bour, has a heroin addict for a mom (Nathalia Kaur). The
latter causes her daughter much grief while exposing
herself to grave danger.Naomi occasionally sneaks into
Kabir's cheerless pad, pawns her belongings to him and