Opening Doorz

By Martin D’Souza | Opening Doorz Editorial | October 02, 2019

Rating: 3 / 5

The essence: Technically, the film is sound with the action scenes being first-rate. However, director Siddharth Anand loses his grip on War by being generous with 36 extra minutes. Pankaj Kapur did the same mistake with Mausam with a run-time of 168 minutes! Having said that, if you are Hrithik Roshan fan, then don’t miss this one. Ditto if Tiger Shroff sets your adrenalin rush.

Not every movie needs to have a song inserted between scenes. Even though War has just two songs, they annoy and how. Siddharth Anand sews together a tight plot and just when the bar of intensity has to be raised, in comes a Holi song. Where was the need brother? Ditto post interval when Vaani Kapoor is introduced as a pole dancer. At 156 minutes run time, War extends its time. Knock off the 10 minutes of extra fight time [just for jazz]; five minutes of the chase scenes and another 20 minutes on the editing table, and War would have made the impact the team set out to have. Towards the end, the movie gets tedious and the plot and the twist are lost.

The Holi song was introduced to focus on Hrithik Roshan’s dancing. Of course, he is brilliant and a joy to watch, but why lean the focus on his dance when he is freaking setting the screen on fire with his action?

Kabir (Hrithik Roshan) an Indian soldier, once the guy to go to for the armed forces has gone rogue. He is systematically targeting Indian dignitaries. Khalid (Tiger Shroff) who has been mentored by Khalid is assigned the task of eliminating Kabir. Khalid, however, tells Colonel Luthra (Ashutosh Rana) that he will first want to find out why Kabir turned his back on his country. And so begins the War between the two.

Hrithik Roshan is first rate, with a Wild West look, he is slick and destructive. He lights up the screen with his sheer presence. I dare say, never has a Bollywood hero looked so hot on screen!

Tiger Shroff gets an entry reserved for established stars and he justifies the move with his brilliant fight scenes. And when Hrithik and Tiger get together on screen, it’s like a Jason Statham-Mark Wahlberg thriller. Vaani Kapoor gets her standard Yashraj Film Time in a substandard role. Whatever happened to the brilliance of the girl we saw in Shudh Desi Romance?

Anupriya Goenka as Aditi, a female officer in Kabir’s team is the woman who stands out. When she tells Kabir, in the presence of Khalid (on her wedding night after decoding the hard disk) that she would even now marry him if he just says yes, you can see the screen sizzle!

Technically, the film is sound with the action scenes being first-rate.  The plot gets tedious and the narrative has to lean on car and bike chases. Moreover, the defeaning background score during these tense scenes drowns the brilliance of the action scenes. Director Siddharth Anand loses his grip on War by being generous with 36 extra minutes. Pankaj Kapur did the same mistake with Mausam with a run-time of 168 minutes!

If you are Hrithik Roshan fan, then don’t miss this one. Ditto if Tiger Shroff sets your adrenalin rush.

CREDITS
Producer: Yashraj Films
Director: Siddharth Anand
Star Cast: Hrithik Roshan, Tiger Shroff, Vaani Kapoor, Anupriya Goenka, Ashutosh Rana

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