Ganapath (2023) Review!!

Synopsis – In a dystopian future, Ganapath, a relentless and skilled vigilante, embarks on a mission to dismantle a powerful criminal empire that has gripped the city in fear, Ganapath becomes a symbol of hope for the oppressed in which leads dark.

My Take – By now we are all familiar with the template of a Tiger Shroff starrer, which depend heavily upon two things that he does best – dancing and acrobatic action. Hence, it comes as no surprise that his latest too include one set piece after another, allowing him to do either of the two.

But while there are ample acrobatics on display, slow mo shots and lethal punches in the film, none of it helps the whole set up rise beyond its weak script, that is constructed from a mountain of absurdities and keep growing with each passing minute, so much so that even the re-pairing of the Heropanti (2014) lead couple cannot salvage the situation.

Sure, the film has a few moments of success, but what comes as a surprise is just how terrible and misguided the overall execution is, particularly coming from the hands of writer-director Vikas Bahl, who has well proven his worth with Super 30 (2019) and Queen (2014).

In the name of being futuristic, the film presents a rather silly and familiar premise without much background, and just stitches some fight scenes and dance numbers together to create a weak screenplay that’s just all over the place. And making everything much worse is the awful VFX. The backdrops are so jarring and unrealistic that the characters looks like 2D holograms in front of them.

In the end of its 133 minutes run time, you just feel sorry for Tiger Shroff, who has never shied away from admitting his forte and love for the action genre, but by supporting such terrible scripts, he has set up a rocky path ahead for himself.

Narrated by Dalapati (Amitabh Bachchan), the film takes place in 2070, a dystopian world which resulted due to a destructive war that divided the world in two parts, one with the rich and the mighty living in the luxurious, high-tech Silver City that is ruled by their heartless kingpin Dalini. And the other where the poor and the needy are left to rot and struggle for their survival.

The story follows Guddu (Tiger Shroff), a womanizing youngster living his best life as the right hand man and wrestling curator of John English (Ziad Bakri), the much feared aide of Dalini, whose “modern day Roman Colosseum” boxing ring is a front for his gambling successes.

But things go downhill for him when Guddu is caught with John’s girlfriend (Elli AvrRam), forcing him to escape to the outskirts of the gaudy city. Unbeknownst to him, he is also known as Ganapath, the savior everyone has been waiting for. Beginning a journey of self-actualization, in which two incredible fighters Shiva (Rahman) and Jassi (Kriti Sanon), will help Guddu become the symbol of hope.

Honestly, the first half, barring a few instances isn’t half bad. Then, the interval block play out and you start to wonder what went wrong while making the film as it does completely downhill with lazy writing, terrible execution and absurd characters. Here, director Bahl is constantly trying to show off that his film is a sleek and futuristic, but is trying so hard and so tirelessly, that he is unable to produce a single moment of rapture of success.

There’s some Hunger Games in this film, and a lot of Mad Max. The promise of civil war is teased throughout, but it’s difficult to care because the film has no interest in anyone other than its lead character. None of the slum dwellers have any agency of their own, they only suffer and wait for a hero.

Jassi is introduced as a nunchuk-weilding badass but is soon reduced to a spectator as Guddu and the appropriately named Tabahi pound each other. It even attempts to make a statement reflecting on the huge divide between the rich and the poor, but it falters in the execution department so much that it ends up being yet another mindless dystopian tale. Even if the story seems to come together after some time, it never reaches a point that you want to believe in it.

The film’s biggest drawback, without a doubt, is the VFX. When the screen is filled with an establishing shot, you’re still willing to let the amateur work slide but then there’s the obvious use of the green screen where the characters look so woefully out of place in their environment that it borders on comical. The whole set up is inadequate to make us believe that we are somewhere in the future. Parts of the film look like a large scrapyard and Silver City looks like the insides of a video game produced for a cheap PC game.

To a large extent, Tiger Shroff tries to rescue the film. He exudes a magnetic presence on the screen and is in top form. No matter how forced the dance numbers are in the tale, he looks particularly terrific while performing high-octane, gravity-defying stunts and grooving to them. His power-packed action scenes are commendable and chemistry with co-star Kriti Sanon looks effortless. Kriti Sanon gets some incredible action sequences of her own and is easily the most watchable part of this film that is until her character is relegated to the sidelines in the second half.

Rahman brings a lot of calm in the chaos, while Palestinian actor Ziad Bakri manages to be a refreshing screen presence. Gauhar Khan and Elli AvrRam are wasted. In what is nothing more than cameo, Amitabh Bachchan is in his usual top form. On the whole, ‘Ganapath’ is a meandering futuristic action-entertainer that is thinly conceived and poorly executed.