Action Replayy (2010)

A young man tries to revive his parents' wilting marriage by traveling to the 1970s when their romance was budding and make it bloom: something more complex than he expects.

Director:

Vipul Amrutlal Shah

Writers:

Irshad Kamil (lyrics), Aatish Kapadia (dialogues)

Stars:

Akshay Kumar, Aishwarya Rai Bachchan, Aditya Roy Kapoor

Cast

Credited cast:
Akshay Kumar	...	Kishen Chopra
Aishwarya Rai Bachchan	...	Mala Malhotra / Mala K. Chopra
Aditya Roy Kapoor	...	Bunty K. Chopra (as Aditya Roy Kapur)
Om Puri	...	Rai Bahadur Dhyanchand
Kirron Kher	...	Bholi Devi
Rannvijay Singh	...	Kundanlal Kapoor (as Rannvijay Singh Singha)
Neha Dhupia	...	Mona / Maa Jogeshwari
Rajpal Yadav	...	Bhiku
Randhir Kapoor	...	Professor Anthony Gonsalves
Sudeepa Singh	...	Tanya Gonsalves
Rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Alok Kumar	...	Sri Kumaran

Storyline

After witnessing nothing but acrimony between his bickering Mumbai-based parents, Kishen and Mala Chopra, Bunty refuses to marry his girlfriend, Tanya Gonsalves. He is then introduced to her eccentric grandfather, Professor Anthony Gonsalves, and finds that the latter has invented a time-travel machine. Bunty travels back in time - specifically Holi 1975 - when Mumbai was called Bombay and gets to meet his parents when they were younger. He is shocked to find his buck-toothed wimpy father, and his mother - a goon-like tomboy. Amidst the terror of Raman Raghav, the impending Emergency of former Prime Minister Indira Gandhi, banning of multinationals - including Coca Cola - and the Charisma of superstar Rajesh Khanna - he sets about to try and set things right between not only his bickering parents but also his feuding grandparents. He will soon find out that his mother has another admirer - who will not leave any stone unturned to marry her.

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Plot Keywords:

period film | two word title | time machine | reunion | parents | 

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Taglines:

Rewind your life

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Genres:

Comedy | Romance | Sci-Fi

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Certificate:

Not Rated

Did You Know?

Trivia

While shooting the film, Akshay Kumar did not like his look and also had a feeling this film won't do well at the box office but continued doing the film as per Director Vipul Amrutal Shah's will.

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Goofs

Bunty tells Kishen that he has meetings with Sachin Tendulkar, Virendra Sehwag and Barack Obama. None of these people were well-known in 1975.

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Connections

Remake of Back to the Future (1985)

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Soundtracks

Chhan Ke Mohalla - Remix
Written by Irshad Kamil
Composed by Pritam Chakraborty
Performed by Sunidhi Chauhan and Ritu Pathak
Courtesy of Super Cassettes Industries Limited (T-Series)

User Reviews

Good for a laugh, but don't expect outstanding cinema

I feel that I'm being quite generous on my rating of 7/10, as I was expecting a lot from Action Replayy and it did not live up to those standards. With Akshay Kumar playing a lead role, I was expecting gut-bursting laughs, and thankfully, that has fulfilled it's promise. I found the humour to be the saving grace in the movie, and there are laughs. I would not call them gut-bursting laughs, but there were many comical moments that evolved into a hearty laugh from me. Akshay did not disappoint.

The plot is basically non-existent, and is loosely adapted from Robert Zemeckis's genius "Back to the Future". Sadly Action Replayy is not in the same realm in the slightest. It's sad that BTTF has to be linked to this as it is a poor adaptation of a classic movie. The lack of plot is the key factor which lets the film down. In addition, the film is quite jumpy and many important details are left unexplained, confusing the viewer.

The casting is well done, although I never would have placed Neha Dhupia in her role of Mona. I feel she has the talent capacity of a grape, and was not wrong as she was just a pretty face in the movie. Akshay was lovable and funny, and the physical transformation we see him in is hilarious. He makes a fantastic geek. Aishwarya as his love interest was an interesting choice - they have not been seen together on screen for a while and I was curious to see the outcome. She looks stunning on screen, the 1970s style and attire suits her brilliantly and she looks very much like a Hindi Film heroine from that era. Her performance was satisfactory, I enjoyed her in the role of Mala, and there's no denying she performed well, if we excuse some overacting. Rannvijay Singh as Kundanlal was irksome and brings out a lot of the comedy in the movie - he was a great villain. Rajpal Yadav as always, made me laugh. However the most striking piece of the puzzle was the newcomer Aditya Roy Kapoor as the protagonist Bunty. He's very appealing and for one of his first few films I'd say he did a good job. There were points where I found him quite irritating but it was more the fault of the poor screenplay and lack of storyline. Bunty screaming "Woo Hoo!" at seeing his parents fall in love, made me cringe immensely, but I hold this more to the script and not him. Kirron Kher and Om Puri are wasted, but as usual play their parts par excellence as expected. And there is even another fresh face playing Bunty's love interest Tanya.

I loathed the "time machine" scenes because they were done with about the effort of a five-year old. We were told the bare minimum about the time machine and the CGI-travelling-through-time sequence is terrible. I also found the music less catchy than what I expected, and some of the lyrics are terrible - "all my ladies and my mans, and my mans and all my ladies!" - there were very few good quality musical bits.

Action Replayy is a flawed film, with it's plot (or lack of) being the main letdown, but I still wouldn't say this film is not worth watching. As much as I didn't want to, I did find the humour amusing and there are definitely laughable moments in the film. Action Replayy is more lighthearted than anything, and should be seen with an open mind and low expectations. This is good for a lazy evening in, but don't watch this expecting a great cinematic experience, because it's not that sort of film. If you're looking for an easy laugh, however, this could be it.

Details

Official Sites:

Official site

Country:

India

Language:

Hindi

Release Date:

5 November 2010 (India)

Also Known As:

Action Replayy

Box Office

Cumulative Worldwide Gross:

$5,702,135

Company Credits

Production Co:

Blockbuster Movie Entertainers, Cinema Capital Venture Fund, PVR Pictures

Technical Specs

Runtime:

129 min

Sound Mix:

Dolby Digital

Color:

Color