EYE OF THE TIGER

outdated bravado, an expired bluster which no amount of stunt-baazi can camou age. Tiger Shroff’s action scenes are a saving grace, though most of the stunts are staged with chairs tables and glass doors breaking with preorchestrated regularity.

The surprises in the original lm are here rendered utterly ineffectual as the narrative pounds and pulverizes the plot with puerility.

spineless politician Ghosh captures the romance of Kashmir without undermining presentday tensions in the Valley. We must remember that Alcott’s novel was more about nding love than pursuing dreams. Ghosh’s series is not only about love and dreams but also the accompanying nightmares in a society that is in a febrile state of bloodied ux.

The series captures the sweaty tensions of a people who assume a life of ‘normal’ pursuits like courtship, romance, commitment and heartbreak as guns blaze and res rage across the horizon.

The performances are evenly compelling. The Mirza women are played by beautiful credible actresses who don’t spend time on screen posing and preening in local out ts but are actually seen getting into the skin of their characters. Surveen Chawla as the progressive yet repressed doctordaughter of the family, and Parul Gulati as the outspoken blogger-beti stand out, as do the ever-dependable Rajeev Khandelwal and Pavail Gulati as the two signi ed something. Alas, all I came away with was a convoluted attempt to regurgitate a solid thriller by injecting large doses of bombast and melodrama into the original.

Nothing in Baaghi 2 is done gently. Certainly not the editing which bulldozes through the event-packed narrative caring little for niceties like pace and momentum. Every move is a slog, every slap is a sledgehammer.

Julius Packiam’s background music which tries to keep up with Tiger’s rush of bravado, could wake up a pack of comatose wolves, although it could do nothing to keep me from falling into a dreadful numbness of the spirit, the kind one feels when a bunch of overenthusiastic kindergarten boys try to do a stage version of an Amitabh Bachchan actioner from the 1980s.

Throughout there is a feeling of

Everyone hams. Pratiek Babbar and, surprisingly Manoj Bajpai ham so much it is an embarrassment to watch them whenever they are on screen. With Babbar that’s not a major problem as the script has little time for him. The only one who gets away with the hamming is Randeep Hooda. His longhaired cop act does have a certain degree of intelligence, otherwise found to be lacking in almost every sequence.

Tiger Shroff seethes in anger. No wonder he erupts with the vehemence of a battle-bound gun blazing at enemies across the border. His Rambo act in the third act of this horriblybotched remake saves the day but fails to rescue the lm from its numbing nemesis.

Does Tiger nd the kidnap victim? Does anyone really care what happens to the missing child when we have more urgent concerns, like trying to hold on to our senses while characters talk nonsense like “Muslims are not only known for biryani but also for qurbani.” men in their lives. There is a constant ow of interesting events, bolstered by dialogues and lines that do not appear to be borrowed from greeting cards and online poems. These people speak a convincing ménage of Hindi Urdu and English and the Mirza sisters often lace their heated arguments around the house with the ‘F’ word.

This, coming from an actor as able as Deepak Dobriyal is a shame. But then, what is not?

Haq Se is well worth your time. Interestingly, this is the second series in a row produced by Ekta Kapoor after the riveting Test Case to show women challenging men at their work place. This social awakening on the digital platform is welcome. Perhaps Ekta Kapoor can nally move on from those regressive serials for day-time television. Subhash K Jha