The Power Movie Review: Even Vidyut Jammwal’s hi-flying action can’t save this outdated and predictable script

Directed By
Mahesh Manjrekar

Produced By
Vijay Galani, Pratik Galani, Dhaval Jayantilal Gada, Aksshay Jayantilal Gada

Cast
Vidyut Jammwal, Shruti Haasan, Jisshu Sengupta, Mahesh Manjrekar, Prateik Babbar, Sachin Khedekar, Salil Ankola, Yuvika Chaudhary, Sonal Chauhan, Zakir Hussain, Sameer Dharmadhikari, Chetan Hansraj, Sudhanshu Pandey.

Bollywood Bubble Rating

What’s It About
Mahesh Manjrekar is the patriarch of a gangster family, however, he has his own ethics. When his ethics cross paths with new-age gangsters who try to do things differently, it starts a blood bath, which consumes everyone. Will the sons Jisshu Sengupta and Vidyut Jammwal be able to take revenge from their enemies and make sure that their family survives and ends up coming on top in this gangster war? Well, you’ll have to watch the movie for the same.

What’s Hot
Jisshu Sengupta as the eldest son of the family, Ram, is very convincing. In the past couple of decades, you’ve seen Jisshu in pretty chocolate boy characters all over Bengali cinema, and now that he’s in Bollywood, he is making sure to break all stereotypes and come out with flying colours. As the hot-headed and constantly-abusive guy, there is somewhat a genuine love for his family that Jisshu shows in every frame. Definitely a stand out amidst the plethora of men in the movie with bulging biceps.

Vidyut Jammwal is once again in his superhuman capabilities trying to singlehandedly defeat an army and also woo the pretty ladies at the same time. While it would have been a bad quality for any other actor, but Vidyut somehow manages to carry that suave look and kick some ass like no one else. His hi-flying kicks and insanely well-shot punches actually seem like he has been fighting in every frame. Vidyut does have a great sense of action shots and that’s what makes the viewer seem like he/she is right there in the middle of it all. Kudos man!

Salil Ankola, by god! When he is seen as the sidekick of one of the main villains of the movie, you don’t end up thinking that he would have such a fantastic Khali like hand squash move. His biceps seem bigger than Vidyut Jammwal’s face, and when Salil hand squashes people, your inner WWF fan is just chanting ‘Khali Khali Khali’.

The cinematography by Rakesh Rawat and action directed by Ravi Verma come together pretty well to make you enjoy every fight scene.

What’s Not
Prateik Babbar is getting typecast in these secondary villain characters where he comes out as the crazy mad guy trying to do some evil. This one is no different. He surely needs to start picking up characters which are actually not just secondary to the main plot of the movie.

It’s hard to reckon that Shruti Haasan is the daughter of Kamal Haasan, a man who’s known to pick every role with precision. Shruti has been playing pretty much the same character with little bit changes here and there in most of her Hindi outings. Whether it’s Gabbar or Rocky Handsome or Welcome Back or Yaara or The Power, all of them have really small characters and have pretty much similar character arcs. Why can’t we see her back in Hindi in good characters like in 7aum Arivu or Race Gurram or Premam?

After having a great debut in Jannat, Sonal Chauhan is barely seen in movies nowadays. To add to that if she continues to pick roles like this where she is seen for just 5-10 minutes, pretty soon she will be one of the has-been actresses.

The movie wastes the talent of celebrated character artistes like Mahesh Manjrekar, Sachin Khedekar, Zakir Hussain, Yuvika Chaudhary, Sameer Dharmadhikari, Chetan Hansraj, Sudhanshu Pandey and many others.

My main disgust for the movie comes from the promotional tactic used by the makers. The trailers promised it to be a revenge drama between two former lovers (Vidyut and Shruti). Sadly, their enmity is just shown for not more than 10-15 mins as the main fight seems to be between Vidyut and the Sachin Khedekar’s men. Why promote it like a fight between a girl and a boy when it’s actually not the case!

To add to the insult, Mahesh Manjrekar’s story is utterly outdated. The script is one of those which may have worked in the late 2000s but is totally obsolete in 2021. I can’t believe Mahesh Manjrekar allowed a character in the movie who borderlines on being homosexual and marries a pretty heterosexual Shruti Haasan. The character is shown in a bad light where he is totally unable to even stand up for himself, and at the same time also shows off pretty stereotypical feminine characteristics. Somehow ends up showing that homosexual men cannot wear the pants in the household. Quite a messed up portrayal.

Verdict
Mahesh Manjrekar is known to have an excellent eye for great stories when he makes movies, but let’s just erase this film from his filmography, as this barely lives up to any of his previous action films. If you’re a massive fan of Vidyut’s hi-flying action, then probably you’ll be able to sit through the 2-hour 23-minute presentation. Others, TOTALLY AVOID. I am going with 1 star.

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Also Read: ‘AK Vs AK’ Movie Review: Leave everything and watch this Anil Kapoor and Anurag Kashyap starrer edge-of-the-seat thriller!

Prateek Sur

Born a Movie Buff, working as a Film Critique and enjoying life as a Bollywood Reporter.

Email: editor@bollywoodbubble.com Phone: +91 8355910465