Gabbar Is Back

A film to be received with the same enthusiasm one would reserve for news that anti-vaxxers were engineering the return of whooping cough.

Can Bollywood please, please stop making these tired, tiresome remakes?

Gabbar is Back is a dated film, both in look and feel, and the cast seems to know it too.

Ultimately, this is an apolitical message that's not conducive to movement-building or to lasting social change.

A dated premise, weak plot and abysmal characterisation are only partially made up for by the star power of Akshay Kumar.

Had Gabbar Is Back had stuck to the nitty-gritties of its original it could've been a decent watch. But it strays from the path grossly.

[Akshay Kumar's] hand-to-hand combat will remind you of his earlier Khiladi days where he used to bulldoze a barricade of 20 guys with just one kick. And, where these things don't work, his lethal comic timing comes to aide.

Because the plot is nonsensical... the producers decide to exploit Hindi cinema's most iconic villain and voice... Mr. Kumar, who looks like he has other places to be.

Gabbar is back, and it isn't good news.

The second half's blood pressure doesn't fully match the first -- but the climax pushes up the adrenaline again.