Apne movie review

Manish Bollywood 19/10/2007

Cast: Dharmendra, Sunny Deol, Bobby Deol, Shilpa Shetty, Katrina Kaif
Direction: Anil Sharma

Aging heroes are still heroes . Kyunki , heroism is ageless. And aging heroes still need a dekko. Kyunki , they don’t make them like that anymore. In an industry where stardom has a short lifespan and there is always a bratpack bustling in the wings, it is indeed a heroic act for a has-been star to grab eyeballs and prove that the fire still burns…

This one comes straight from Dharmendra’s heart. You can see his earnestness shine through as he desperately tries to raise a toast for the karmayoddhas of yore. This trend is currently the flavour of Hollywood too, with Sylvestor Stallone re-living his Rocky razzmatazz once more and Bruce Willis reiterating his Die Hard determination to save the world in a stubble and a singlet.

Dharmendra introduces the autumn sonata in desi cinema with his committed act of an erstwhile boxer who tries to fight for honour and country, albeit through his sons.

Having been disgraced and suspended from the world boxing arena due to false doping charges, our hero has aged into a cynical father who cannot forgive his elder son (Sunny Deol) after he abandoned a ‘useless’ career in boxing for family and fortune.

Hope floats when the chhota puttar (Bobby Deol) pledges his punches to papaji and declares he’ll avenge daddy’s dishonour by taking on the world champ. But there’s many a hitch between pledge and performance… Chhota puttar has a weak arm and the world champ’s a cheat.

So no prizes for guessing who actually goes ballistic with his fists, specially since we’ve seen those killer punches create Gadar , time and again.

The film naturally belongs to Dharmendra who goes through the entire gamut of emotions while displaying the angst of a dad who is torn between the love for his sons and the pain of disgrace.

While the first half moves at an agonising pace (too much of pulpy parivaar business in Punjab), the film picks up in the second half when the Deols descend into the ring. After that, it’s the dashing Deol Inc. on display, with papa Dharam proving he’s still quite garam .