Force

Indian Express rating:**

In the opening credits,you’ll find a line which states the film is ‘inspired by’ the Tamil original ‘Kaakha Kaakha’. There’s more than inspiration here; several key scenes and sequences are replicated,and much else is similar. But ‘Force’ doesn’t deliver as much punch,even as it recasts John Abraham as an action hero.

For those who haven’t seen the original,there is some fleeting enjoyment to be had in ‘Force’. An action flick these days usually sports a hero with sculpted abs,and Abraham is completely solid on that score. As a bonus,the villain (Jamwal) is equally well-muscled and strips well. There are fights and chases and gun battles. The bad guys are the easy-to-hate drug smugglers and peddlers. The good guys are the Narcotics chaps,who believe in old-fashioned vengeance. And the girl (D’Souza) is sweet and virginal but sassy,making the first move,instead of just waiting for it to come to her. But ‘Force’ is not a tour de force it could have been because Abraham doesn’t cut it all the way.

It’s not that action heroes need to be top-notch in the emoting department,but we do need to them to do a little more. As ACP Yashwardhan,the hard-nosed cop who believes a bullet is a more effective deterrant than an arrest,Abraham has his moments,but only just : no comparison with Suriya,the liquid-eyed hero of ‘Kaakha Kaakha’,who was a knock-out in both the soft-and-hard stuff.

Also,for a thriller,’Force’ is too long,and has too many songs which slow it down. On the plus side,there’s the bad guy who’s quite scary,some truly gory blood-letting sequences justifying the action film tag,and a climax with a sting-in-its-tale.

shubhra.gupta@expressindia.com