Trailer Watch: 'Baaghi'
Tiger-Shraddha in Baaghi
As much as the quality of Bollywood movies has improved over the last decade, there is still that small percentage of them that favour style over substance, with mindless action and dramatic visuals taking precedence over a tight script and solid direction *cough * Rohit Shetty *cough*. Baaghi, unfortunately, appears to fit right into that category.
Directed by Sabbir Khan, who last helmed Heropanti, Baaghi features star kids Tiger Shroff (yes, that is his actual name, and yes, he is Jackie's offspring) as Ronny and Shraddha Kapoor as Sia, two rebels (annoyingly, consistently mispronounced in the trailer), fighting against all odds for their love. From what is discernible in the film's first look, Shroff's character is sent off to learn martial arts at a retreat/camp and falls in love with Kapoor. However, he’s not the only one in love with her – Raghav (Sudheer Babu, a noted Telugu actor) seems to have fallen for bae too, on the back of which, he abducts her and it is left up to Ronny to rescue her. The rest of the trailer is made up of shots promising lots of daring stunts and action.
One can’t help but feel that the plot seems somewhat hackneyed at first glance. The first impression I had was of déjà vu from the multitude of Bollywood movies I watched as a kid growing up in the 90's (and no this has nothing to do with the 90's Salman-Nagma flick of the same name) – the plotline of two people falling in love and having to fight for their love against a common adversary is one that’s been exploited time and again by mainstream Bollywood directors. It might be a safe bet, but with all the leaps and bounds Hindi movies have taken in the last decade or so, do we really need to see this oft repeated plot again, even if it is with better cinematography and crisper editing?
This film promises gruesome fight scenes galore and the stunt work does appear to have been choreographed really well, with the its action tilting more towards martial arts and inexplicably hellbent on showcasing Tiger Shroff’s brooding machismo (and very nearly succeeding too! Side note, the comment re-posted below on the trailer on YouTube will make you LOL.) Considering this is only his second film though, he appears more confident and has more screen presence. It’ll be interesting to see how he pulls this film off, performance wise.
Shraddha looks smoking hot in the film
As for Kapoor, just when you think she’d be playing a regular heroine (and she does look good in the film), the film throws a curve ball and instead shows her as a badass! She doesn’t appear to be a damsel in distress and does her fair share of kicking butt and joining in on the fun – One aspect to definitely look forward to!
The action doesn’t appear to be restricted to just the lead pair. Sudheer Babu also displays some impressive martial arts skills! As he is an unknown entity when it comes to Hindi films, it’s hard to judge how much impact he’ll have and his lack of face time in the trailer (there are action shots of him galore, but no close ups or shots of him delivering dialogue) doesn’t help with deciphering his screen presence.
Overall, for a film that promises entertainment via slick action sequences and plenty of thrilling stunts, there's a clear lack of focus on substance. But then, for a film of this variety, that’s perhaps expecting too much. Either way, I wasn't overtly blown away.
What are your thoughts on the Baaghi trailer? Do let us know in the comments below!
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