Wanted: A review

A still from Wanted.

Crash…boom…wham…bam…bang! Broken limbs, necks turned 360 degrees, twisted jaws, dislocated shoulders, eyes gouged out, tongues chopped off, pools and pools of blood. The three hours of Wanted take one back to the masala madness of the 80s — when the hero could reduce a dozen villains to pulp in a fraction of a second, when logic took a backseat to, well, entertainment, when all that mattered was good prevailing over bad. A time when the underworld gang war theme was a sure-fire hit at the box office and its lead hero assumed larger-than-life status. Such masala mayhem was fun in a way and something which still has its enthusiastic takers if the catcalls and wolf whistles at the first day, first show at Fame (South City) were anything to go by.

An out and out action flick, Wanted pays no heed to a logical storyline and ignores the innumerable loopholes in the plot — and is yet entertaining for the most part. Wanted’s greatest strength lies in the fact that it is a no-pretensions film that doesn’t even try to make sense. But it single-mindedly delivers what it promises — paisa vasool entertainment.

And in the middle of it all is a man called Salman Khan. If the promos doing the rounds screamed out, “he walks casually, he talks casually, he eats casually, he drinks casually, he fights casually…,” then here is a man who can carry a film on his shoulders — very very casually.Wanted is Salman Khan, Salman Khan is Wanted. One can safely say that Wanted would have been just another blood and gore flick if it didn’t have Salman. Felling 15 goons at a go with a twitch of the elbow, flying through the air Matrix-style to land a mean punch or romancing a heroine half his age, Sallu miyan shows that even 20 years after Maine Pyaar Kiya, he is still at the top of his game.

The character of Radhe seems to be tailor-made for the, er, casual Khan. A sharpshooter, described as “Rocky ka dada, Terminator ka nana aur Bruce Lee ka chacha” by his cronies, Radhe is a rebel without a cause who kills at will, without batting an eyelid. “Main sirf ‘money sir’ ke liye kaam karta hoon,” he proclaims with pride.

On this everyday journey of murder and mayhem, he meets Jahnavi (Ayesha Takia Azmi) who falls for him hook, line and sinker. But Radhe isn’t willing to give up his violent life for love and eventually finds himself caught in the middle of two warring underworld gangs, each out to spread fear in the city.

What follows is a Departed-like twist of an undercover cop and more blood and gore till the film roars its way to a predictable end.

There is nothing in Wanted that one hasn’t seen before, but even if the film drags in the second half, director Prabhudeva (yes, the dancing rubber man) doesn’t allow boredom to creep in. The high-adrenaline action scenes (brilliantly brought to life by action director Vijayan Master, who also worked on the original Pokhiri) apart, the bitter-sweet Radhe-Jahnavi romance keeps one entertained.

She masochistically falls in love with him, he doesn’t even bother to make amends each time she walks away in a huff. When she asks him, “Kya karoon, tumse pyaar karoon ya tumhein bhool jaoon?” he nonchalantly smiles, “Bhool jao.”

Hospital, gym, elevator or mall, the nok-jhonk between the two is fun. And when he looks her up and down and says, “Main zyada charbi waali gosht nahin khata,” you turn up your nose at the crassness, but the entire auditorium erupts in applause! It’s called Salman ka dum.

Though Salman may be the only reason to watch Wanted, Ayesha, even saddled with a two-bit badly-written role, makes you miss the girl who will probably never act in films anymore.

Even southern star Prakash Raj as the menacing Ghani Khan breathes life into his role, with some of his one-liners proving to be ceete-taali worthy. Sajid-Wajid’s music, however, is a sore point with a song popping up after every fight sequence. Watch out for Govinda, Anil Kapoor and even Prabhudeva shaking a leg with Salman to a song.

Wanted may not be an ideal weekend watch for the family but if you are a Salman Khan fan, there is enough to make you happy. And for a Dus Ka Dum feel, we suggest you watch it in a single screen theatre.


Priyanka Roy, t2