Kick

A remake of the Telugu film of the same name, 'Kick', which marks the Directorial Debut of Sajid Nadiadwala, is a film that rides on the sheer star-power of Salman Khan. And expectedly, Salman dominates the show with a charismatic, energetic performance, that leads the film. He's in top form!

'Kick' Synopsis: An adrenaline junkie walks away from a whirlwind romance and embraces a new life as a thief, though he soon finds himself pursued by veteran police officer and engaged in a turf war with a local gangster.

As a film, 'Kick' is entertaining, but in parts. The first-hour is superb, with the comedic as well as the romantic sequences, working big time. The second-hour is considerably weak. The entire cat & mouse game between the thief & the cop lacks the fizz. Also, the culmination looks hurried & even the villain's track, for that matter of fact, isn't full-proof.

Chetan Bhagat & Nadiadwala's Adapted Screenplay begins on the correct note & hits all the right points, but weakens in the latter hour. A much stronger second-hour was most definitely needed! Nadiadwala's Direction is lavish. Even the Production Values are outstanding! Cinematography is brilliant. Each & every frame has been captured beautifully. Editing is alright. Music by Himesh Reshammiya & Meet Bros Anjjan is foot-tapping. Action-Sequences are spectacularly executed.

Performance-Wise: Salman is the life of 'Kick'. As Devi, he's absolutely lovable, while as Devil, he's ferocious & heroic. The Superstar's charisma alone makes 'Kick' watchable. He doesn't fail to deliver, even when the writing dips. It's a super act, without doubt! Jacqueline Fernandez looks gorgeous & does reasonably well. Randeep Hooda is perfect as the tough cop. Nawazuddin Siddiqui enacts the villain well, although he tends to go over-the-top at times. Mithun Chakraborty is winsome in a cameo. Saurabh Shukla is wasted. Sanjay Mishra & Kavin Dave are hilarious. Nargis Fakhri sizzles in an item number.

On the whole, Watch 'Kick' for Salman. He's still got it & how!

I saw this for the first time in a theater. I remember it was Eid day n my pal had booked the tickets.

Revisited it recently with my family.

The movie has lots of entertaining factors.

The camaraderie between Mithun n Salman (who plays father n son) is amazeballs.

Nawaz tried his best to be a humor cracking vile villain n he succeeded in it.

The movie has a decent social message n moves at a solid pace without getting boring except for the lousy Bollywood songs.

Salman shud definitely lose weight n join some method acting classes.

The superhero in this movie can do everything from jumping from a bridge, drive a double decker, ride a bicycle, overrun cops inspite of being overweight n wear a ridiculous costume but it is much better than the lousy n copycat Krisshh.

All in all a good family entertainer.

Waiting for it's sequel.

You have an intelligent cop chasing after a foxy thief who specializes in high rung robberies and speeds off on a bike or a cycle or whatever he can lay hands on. He also informs the police well in advance where he is going to strike next and he does and the cops cannot do anything about it.

Nope! I am not talking about the DHOOM series, I am writing about KICK-replace Randeep Hooda with Abhishekh Bachan, the film would pretty well be named DHOOM 4 and can boast of Salman Khan as the new villain in the series. But alas- we have the thief here as the main protagonist, and Randeep Hooda intelligent than Abhishekh Bachan and dumb heroine who can't act to save her life-is a psychiatrist but lets a weirdo play mind games with her.

The movie begins in Poland where psychiatrist Shaina Mehra (Jacquline Fernandez)meets her future husband Police man Himanshu (Randeep Hooda), and comes clean about an affair she had with a weirdo Devi lal Singh (Salman Khan) who she breaks up as he is not serious about life and does not do anything unless it gives him a kick. Himanshu tells her that he is in Poland hunting a clever thief Devil (Salman Khan) who has till now successfully got away with heists worth 600 crores INR.

Before long both of them realize that Devilal and Devil are the same person and he has a major agenda on his hand in Poland and is in fact using both Himanshu and Shaina to pull off a heist on philanthropist Shiv Gazra (Nawazuddin Siddiqui).

The story line is intelligent, but there are huge gaping holes in the screenplay which surprisingly was worked upon by 4 writers Rajat Arora, Keith Gomes, Sajid Nadiadwala and surprise surprise Chetan Bhagat. It might well have been written by a novice and all he needed was to watch the Telugu DVD from which the movie was made, as the movie is 95% faithful scene by scene to the original.

Salman has a cool air throughout the movie and you do not see him switching between the two characters as he should be, instead you are subjected to "this is my movie-I will do what I wish" attitude.

Jacqueline Fernandez has only 30 seconds of fame in the song "Jumma Ke raath" where she breaks into a hot jig and leaves everyone gasping for more. And the rest of the movie she would actually give a complex to a zombie. The role required someone more mature and someone who can actually act.

Randeep Hooda will go down in history as the only lead actor who has managed to hold his own in a Salman Khan movie, it is sheer pleasure to watch this talented actor underplay his role and his dead pan one liners in the climax are absolutely hilarious since he delivers them with a straight face.

Nawazuddin Siddiqui gives a striking performance as the psychotic villain, but he is not given enough screen time to actually perform to his fullest. It is sad to see Mithun Chakraborothy accepting such inane roles. Nargis Fakhri is not exactly a malaiaka Arora to set the screen ablaze with her item, one of the easily forgettable visuals in the film. All said and done, go ahead and watch this movie if you have nothing interesting to do, or if you are a die hard Salman Khan and if you have not seen the original.

Am I Salman Khan fan? If you ask me this question today I would say I am neutral. What I definitely cherish is the charity work he does, that is the reason why one appreciates this movie.

While watching for the first time I got what you call kick in this movie throughout when movie ran on big screen. After watching on my computer it was not the same experience. Despite that it is a decent movie and you cannot take that away from it. What I would like to highlight is even if the experience was not liked the first time my emotions still flew. I mean my eyes were wet when the girl who was ill emerged.

It is not like most of the Salman Khan movies, thus being underrated cause me discomfort. As a fan and as a human being one should appreciate his work as charity. A movie inspired from that is something that I appreciate.

Salman looked great throughout the movie. A tip I would like to give him. It is he looked better with a 'non'clean-shaved look.

Tone, Script & Story: See IMDb Storyline.

Direction, Screenplay, Cinematography: Justified and were Eye candy. Music: Good. Acting: Justified.

Final Verdict: It is a decent movie. If you love Salman's work, you will love it even more. All I wanted was to feel kick like the first time I watched it but that's OK.

First addressing the people interested in slamming it down due to its avoidable minuses, yes the film defies all logics as always seen in a typical Hindi film aiming at entertaining its larger section of viewers, ignoring the others. It doesn't offer any fresh or unpredictable storyline taking the easy path. Has a longer length with few unwanted scenes and mediocre songs thrown in uselessly hindering its otherwise likable progression. Takes too long to come to its actual story plot. Has few close resemblances to films like THE GENTLEMAN, KRISHH and DHOOM, whereas is yet another remake of a South hit with the same title KICK (Telugu) released in 2009. And needless to say has Salman Khan in almost every frame of the film right till its last minute as desired by his die-hard fans who have fondly given him the title of BHAI.

But having said that, KICK still cannot be rated as anything bad or ridiculous despite having all the above mentioned hiccups in its around 145 minutes of duration. And the reason behind this contradiction is that the film does have a breezy entertaining feel maintained till its impressive climax, has few enjoyable sequences coming in at regular intervals performed well by all the known faces and it holds you on firmly through some superbly written dialogues by Rajat Aroraa.

To give you a fair idea, KICK has no cheap sequences, objectionable lines or cheeky avoidable humour as seen in many of Salman's recent films including JAI HO. It doesn't drag after a while and keeps progressing at a brisk pace, though having all those unwanted songs and sequences adding to its extra length. It doesn't go into that silly & boring 'Love Angle' mode as the latest sequels of KRRISH and DHOOM do. Keeps the much needed fun element intact even till its finale leaving you with all positive vibes. And more importantly this is one of those rare films where Salman Khan doesn't take off his shirt in any of his last minute fights breaking his own set norm religiously followed in the last few years.

Besides where Salman successfully manages to keep you hooked in the first half along with Randeep Hooda & Jacquelin, there Nawazzudin Siddiqui comes in to provide his big noteworthy support post intermission keeping the energy going. And saying the bitter truth, both Randeep and Nawazuddin frankly can be called the second source of oxygen to this latest Salman Khan movie made on a weak premise. In addition, KICK also gets some valuable strength from its entertaining supporting acts led by Sanjay Mishra in his only scene at the Police Station, Mithun Chakraborty as the spirited father, Saurabh Shukla as the girl's pa, Archana Puransingh in her one scene playing the loud mother, Kavin Dave-Sumona in the film's opening chase sequence and Vipin Sharma as the enjoyable, annoyed minister towards the end.

Plus two other thankful saviors of KICK are that this time the lead actress doesn't tease you at all due to her calm & pleasing appearance (ignoring her diction) and the lead actor i.e. Salman doesn't look like an arrogant, over confident star performing the role at his own will, ignoring any specific demand of his actual character written in the script. In other words KICK has the Salman Khan we saw in WANTED & DABANGG, but not the one witnessed in READY, BODYGUARD, EK THA TIGER or DABANGG 2 to be precise.

Moreover it's the unexpectedly surprising debut achievement by the director-producer Sajid Nadiadwala which simply makes you think that why Sajid didn't opt for direction in all these years for any of Salman's film, since he has actually managed to deliver a much better product than many renowned directors of the industry, unarguably. Anyway a good start has been made with a bang and I hope he will give us much better films in the future which would ideally be based on some original scripts and not just be the routine remakes of the south following the easier path. Interestingly one fight sequence in its first half has been straight away taken from Prakash Mehra - Amitabh Bachchan's SHARAABI released in 1984. And I would really like to know that whether it was unintentional or Sajid actually wished to pay a tribute to the master film-maker in his very first venture.

Coming back to KICK, cinematography & action gives an international look to the film, especially post intermission in its actions sequences and background score keeps the tempo high as required. Sadly the soundtrack remains the weakest link of the film once again and one or two catchy hit songs could have easily taken the project to another level altogether. Here the point to be noted is that the original Telugu movie does have few melodious upbeat tracks composed well. So I wonder why they didn't go for the official rights of those songs only, following the ROWDY RATHORE route playing it safe.

Now apart from the commercial aspect, the one thing I would personally like to appreciate here is that since his last two attempts, Salman is trying to give a social message through his films fulfilling his moral responsibility towards the people being their loving celebrity. Unfortunately he failed to give that message impressively in JAI HO but has once again tried to do the same in KICK. And I hope this time the message reaches the maximum, encouraging them all to find their individual KICK of life, before the time is over.

Summing up, I would like to rate KICK as a much better movie than KRRISH 3, DHOOM 3 or even EK THA TIGER in terms of entertainment. So Salman is definitely here to get a bigger Iddi this festive season along with Randeep and Nawazuddin loudly claiming their respective shares too.