A Flying Jatt (2016) Review!!

Synopsis – Jatt is a reluctant super hero that fights crime and protects people. He meets his match in the evil Raka who he must face off to save the day.

My Take – Superhero films are tough to make, mainly because this is one genre that depends heavily on budgets. While our western counterparts have been excelling and growing in this genre for decades, Bollywood have been finding new ways to provide reasons why making an Indian superhero film has always been a bad idea. While past films such as Ra One, Drona, Ajooba or even the Krrish films have been more of a miss than a hit, they do get kudos for at least having their heart in the right place if not the script. That’s not the case here! This Remo D’souza directed film is what you get when Bollywood feeds on superstition, simplifies environmental issues and adds Sikh pride to the mix. I agree, there is no standard potion to make a fine superhero film. There’s the usual drill – a man in his cape, his goofy love story and his David-versus-Goliath epic fight. There is pummeling galore and in parts, that works here too. However, the film’s story is far too juvenile to strike a chord with adults. While Remo D’souza is known to be a fairly decent choreographer, his filmmaking chops definitely need a revisit as is evident from his latest feature which is less of a superhero action flick and more of a sermon on environment’s annihilation by its dwellers. I guess it was my mistake to expect from a film which said ‘Produced by Ekta Kapoor’ on the poster itself.

The story follows Aman (Tiger Shroff), a cowardly martial arts school teacher who lives with his strong willed alcoholic mother (Amrita Singh) and younger brother Rohit (Gaurav Pandey) in a Punjabi community where a 100 years old divine tree also resides. Taunted by his mother for being scared of heights and unable to confess his love to his neighbor Kirti (Jacqueline Fernandez), Aman seem lost in life until he meets a rich business man Malhotra (Kay Kay Menon), who is interested in buying the land they are residing on. When everything else fails, Malhotra sends in the towering bounty hunter Raka (Nathan Jones) to finish the job. In the ensuing fight, divine intervention coupled with medical marvel bless both Aman and Raka with special powers. While Aman uses his powers for the greater good by becoming a superhero, Raka goes on a destructive spree. How good eventually overcomes evil is what forms the crux of the rest of the story. The film gives viewers a modern-day superhero in the mold of Sikh warriors. It’s a neat idea, but I couldn’t help feeling like the makers had missed out on a few ready possibilities. Director Remo D’souza has reduced his work considerably by sewing together the story of a goody and silly young chap, who derives his superpowers from nature and fights the evil villain, who gets powerful by toxic waste. Quite a lesson for kids who shirk studying that subject. To begin a superhero film with a plaintive song about the environment may seem like an unusual choice, but pollution isn’t just a major theme here, it’s literally the villain. In comic book tradition, what doesn’t kill you makes you a supervillain; in this case, one who grows stronger with every sniff of exhaust fumes and cigarette smoke (for once, that painful “smoking kills” warning seemed justified). Plagiarism is par for the course in big-budget Indian action films, but this film commits a bigger offence: It runs out of ideas and begins to recycling from known films. The first half of the film is silly but quite watchable, with Shroff happy to play both clown and masked savior. After interval, the film goes downhill. The tempo drops and not like it was some sort of infallible fun even before that. But at least, you could laugh. Post-interval, it becomes an unbearable mess. There is a love story, where the couple has no chemistry. In the 1^st half we’ve already seen Rohit, put on the suit and pretends; it’s funny the first time, but then we’re given the same routine again, and again. There is some charm, some laughs, some novel thinking but the problems weigh them out. Clearly, the target audience is children. What else explains the clichéd depiction of waste in barrels that read ‘Toxic’. Spoon feeding the audience is a dangerous space (even if it’s kids). A mixed bag of Sikh teachings, lessons on global warming and a showcase of the tackiest production values and VFX seen in recent times. As a director, Remo fails to show any finesse; in fact, there is utmost contempt towards the audience with his blatant disregard towards anything aesthetic. Indian films have witnessed a different level of production values and VFX through films like Krrish 3, Robot and Baahubali. Remo dares to make a film in the same category and then dishes out this? The younger viewers targeted by the film may just miss the Hollywood references that litter the screenplay.

As Jatts powers are quite similar to Superman, the film makers decide to rip out sequences from Man of Steel and Superman IV: Quest for Peace, but the highlight of the film would be the sequence stolen from X-Men: Days of Future Past in which Quicksilver freezes time and toys with people and objects to the tune of Time in a Bottle. Still, credit must be given where credit is due: director Remo D’Souza and screenwriter Tushar Hiranandani manage to situate their hero in a believable (if outright comical) local context, something that previous Hindi films in this genre have generally failed to do. In a moment of comic self-deprecation, Aman, his mother and his brother Rohit settle down with a stack of Hollywood film DVDs to coach Aman in appropriate superhero behavior and design an appropriate costume for him. In Hollywood, superhero behavior is excavated from within the soul. In Bollywood, it takes a pushy mother and the hand of God to discover the masked crusader within all of us. If it wasn’t for the Waheguru’s blessings, Aman may have remained a good-hearted martial arts teacher at a local school rather than the savior of Punjab. Filled by the sheer ridiculousness of it all, the film is at times so bad that you may start getting confused that the film is actually good. While Jacqueline Fernandez as the superhero’s love interest and Amrita Singh as his mother only add to the noise pollution; the fervently choreographed fight scenes and martial art sequences manage to numb us into submission. With the steady thrumming of “Raj Karega Khaalsa” chant, there is a decent attempt to engage our interest but we are soon left to fend for ourselves. The only thing worth watching out for in this film, is Tiger Shroff. Every trick in the book has been used to make him look good and he is sincere. He dances like a dream, fights flawlessly and dares to step out of comfort zone. He might not have the robustness of a superhero but his effort is worth applauding. Though am not sure whether to compliment his attempt to be different than his Baaghi and Heropanti avatars or question his guts to do something so silly. Whatever he does, at least he is damn good. His nemesis, played by Nathan Jones is a non dimensional character. We have no backstory. He pops out of nowhere, inhaling waste and feeding on everything that pollutes the environment. But the WWE star is immensely watchable even with all his wailing. Amrita Singh is adorable. She brings out the best in Tiger in their scenes together, which are perhaps the film’s most memorable parts. Jacqueline Fernandez looks dolled up, but their doe-eyed beauty can’t cast a spell. Her character is not fleshed out well and she has little material to work with. Gaurav Pandey and Kay Kay Menon are likable. On the whole, ‘A Flying Jatt’ tries to combine humor, a social message and out-of-this-world fight sequences to give us a perfect superhero film, but ends up being a muddled effort due to its use of pot boiling elements and awful writing.