Miss Alone
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Cast: Tiger Shroff, Jacqueline Fernandez, Amrita Singh, Nathan Jones, Kay Kay Menon
Direction: Remo D'Souza
Star Rating: (2.5)
It is (not?) a surprise that Tiger Shroff is three films old now, and still, he is not a decent actor. Every feeling he emotes and every word he says lacks, for lack of a better word, dignity. His contemporaries like Varun Dhawan, Sidharth Malhotra or Sushant Singh Rajput have showed a flair for dramatic acting right from their first film. But all the young Shroff scion can do is fight well, dance well, and the best of all, smile really well. This smile of Shroff's is the backbone of his charming, affable, goofy and well, harmless on-screen self, which in his new film A Flying Jatt, has been put to great use by director Remo D'Souza.
It's as if Tiger's directors know exactly the scope and limitations of the young actor and keeping these in mind, weave a story around them.
Well, of all the films Tiger has been a part of, this is certainly the most imaginative one. He plays Aman, a martial arts teacher for kids in a school and is not respected or taken seriously. Aman has a fear of heights and certainly thinks more than twice before throwing a punch. When evil industrialist Mr Malhotra (Kay Kay Menon, hamming it up) comes to his neighbourhood and offers a price for the land to set up his factory, Aman's mother Baby (a fantastic Amrita Singh) stands up against him with his son looking confused and nervous. Later, at Mr Malhotra's house, Aman apologises for his mother's behaviour. To drive home the point further, Remo has named him Aman (literally meaning peace).
This boy, due to a freak accident, which involves (in no particular order) lightning, a lot of praying, some religious abracadabra, a holy tree, and fighting a 7-feet-tall lump of muscles called Raka (Nathan Jones), turns into a superhero. Raka, meanwhile, becomes a supervillain.
The stretches where the film takes a dig at its own lack of seriousness are the best. Baby is hell bent on seeing her son become a great superhero. So she makes Aman watch footage from Superman Returns, The Hulk, what have you, expecting her nalayak beta to learn something and then go out and save the world. But Aman is still Aman. In a great scene, where he has first put on the costume, his mother is losing it, seeing her son look like a legit superhero. But Aman gets bored and quietly goes to his bed to sleep before Baby shouts after him and gets him to go out and fight crime.
A Flying Jatt has some great gags peppered throughout the film. One of Aman's powers include touching a book or, say, a DVD, and learning its content within seconds. In the film, he touches such things as a Sunny Leone DVD and a Best of Michael Jackson CD; the scenes write themselves.
However, the film is also exceptionally and embarrassingly unoriginal at places. Believe it or not, Remo picks up the 'Spidey sense' (A Flying Jatt can hear people in distress praying to Wahe Guru), the burning-house-saving-child scene from Tobey Maguire's Spiderman films, and the worst of all, the fantastic Quicksilver scene from Days of Future Past. It is very difficult to wrap one's mind around such stupidity. In a world where Hollywood films are so accessible 24x7 on television and the internet, did Remo think he could get away with these? But then, he probably does not care; his entire ABCD series is inspired from the Step Up films.
Which brings us to A Flying Jatt's weakest link: Jacqueline Fernandez. In the entire film, the only time she seems to be in control is when she beats her booty. Otherwise, she plays a character, which is at best, a human personification of Bubbles from The Powerpuff Girls. She squeals, squeaks, twitches, laughs, breaks down. She is not playing a person but probably, an anime girl. One would love to know what Jackie was high on all through the film.
A Flying Jatt is meant for kids. If grown-ups don't mind doing the fabled "leave the brain outside the home and enjoy" routine before stepping into the theatre, they will not mind A Flying Jatt.
Direction: Remo D'Souza
Star Rating: (2.5)
It is (not?) a surprise that Tiger Shroff is three films old now, and still, he is not a decent actor. Every feeling he emotes and every word he says lacks, for lack of a better word, dignity. His contemporaries like Varun Dhawan, Sidharth Malhotra or Sushant Singh Rajput have showed a flair for dramatic acting right from their first film. But all the young Shroff scion can do is fight well, dance well, and the best of all, smile really well. This smile of Shroff's is the backbone of his charming, affable, goofy and well, harmless on-screen self, which in his new film A Flying Jatt, has been put to great use by director Remo D'Souza.
It's as if Tiger's directors know exactly the scope and limitations of the young actor and keeping these in mind, weave a story around them.
Well, of all the films Tiger has been a part of, this is certainly the most imaginative one. He plays Aman, a martial arts teacher for kids in a school and is not respected or taken seriously. Aman has a fear of heights and certainly thinks more than twice before throwing a punch. When evil industrialist Mr Malhotra (Kay Kay Menon, hamming it up) comes to his neighbourhood and offers a price for the land to set up his factory, Aman's mother Baby (a fantastic Amrita Singh) stands up against him with his son looking confused and nervous. Later, at Mr Malhotra's house, Aman apologises for his mother's behaviour. To drive home the point further, Remo has named him Aman (literally meaning peace).
This boy, due to a freak accident, which involves (in no particular order) lightning, a lot of praying, some religious abracadabra, a holy tree, and fighting a 7-feet-tall lump of muscles called Raka (Nathan Jones), turns into a superhero. Raka, meanwhile, becomes a supervillain.
The stretches where the film takes a dig at its own lack of seriousness are the best. Baby is hell bent on seeing her son become a great superhero. So she makes Aman watch footage from Superman Returns, The Hulk, what have you, expecting her nalayak beta to learn something and then go out and save the world. But Aman is still Aman. In a great scene, where he has first put on the costume, his mother is losing it, seeing her son look like a legit superhero. But Aman gets bored and quietly goes to his bed to sleep before Baby shouts after him and gets him to go out and fight crime.
A Flying Jatt has some great gags peppered throughout the film. One of Aman's powers include touching a book or, say, a DVD, and learning its content within seconds. In the film, he touches such things as a Sunny Leone DVD and a Best of Michael Jackson CD; the scenes write themselves.
However, the film is also exceptionally and embarrassingly unoriginal at places. Believe it or not, Remo picks up the 'Spidey sense' (A Flying Jatt can hear people in distress praying to Wahe Guru), the burning-house-saving-child scene from Tobey Maguire's Spiderman films, and the worst of all, the fantastic Quicksilver scene from Days of Future Past. It is very difficult to wrap one's mind around such stupidity. In a world where Hollywood films are so accessible 24x7 on television and the internet, did Remo think he could get away with these? But then, he probably does not care; his entire ABCD series is inspired from the Step Up films.
Which brings us to A Flying Jatt's weakest link: Jacqueline Fernandez. In the entire film, the only time she seems to be in control is when she beats her booty. Otherwise, she plays a character, which is at best, a human personification of Bubbles from The Powerpuff Girls. She squeals, squeaks, twitches, laughs, breaks down. She is not playing a person but probably, an anime girl. One would love to know what Jackie was high on all through the film.
A Flying Jatt is meant for kids. If grown-ups don't mind doing the fabled "leave the brain outside the home and enjoy" routine before stepping into the theatre, they will not mind A Flying Jatt.
