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| KNOCK OUT MOVIE REVIEW |
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| Review
by : Behindwoods review board |
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Starring:
Sanjay Dutt, Irfan Khan, Kangna Ranaut, Gulshan Grover, Sushant Singh
Direction:
Mani Shankar
Music:
Gourov Dasgupta
Production:
Sohail Maklai
The
season of multi-starrers continues in
Bollywood with Knock Out being the latest
to join the bandwagon. Knock Out is director
Mani Sharma's fifth movie and has been
produced by Sohail Maklai. Pinned with
a lot of ho(y)pe, the movie got released
as a direct competition to Priyadarshan's
Aakrosh. OK! Let's get to the point. |
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Investment banker Tony Khosla alias Bachchu (Irrfan
Khan), who helps politicians in money laundering,
is also a womanizer. He gets a phone call from an
unknown caller (Sanjay Dutt) after he makes a call
in a phone booth. He picks the call and life turns
upside down for him. Hey isn't this the same as the
Colin Farell starrer Phone Booth? Blatantly Yes! If
Phone Booth was a terrific thriller, Knock Out is
a terrible remake. It all starts with Irrfan's ridiculous
wig.
Being forced not to hang the phone call, Irrfan is
made to do confess his wrong-doings. Things get worse
when Sanjay Dutt kills a man forcing Irrfan to come
out of the booth. Enter Sushant, the police officer
and Kangana Raut, who is more a detective than a reporter.
And yes, she wears a tube top and stilettos! Irrfan
does confess to the public and media about what he
is and finally manages to do what Indian politicians
can’t do. Confused?
This is a poorly directed film in every sense. When
Mani Shankar has decided to do a remake, we wonder
why he cannot stick to original. In fact, this effort
of his glorifies the original even more. Even the
phone booth looks out of place with a sophisticated
look than made to be presented as an original. All
the incidents happen within a phone call's duration.
Sanjay Dutt escapes from a building through the elevator
shaft, sets up base on another apartment, there are
flashbacks and conversations with others. All in one
phone call! What is the police officer doing in the
movie? He just wants to look stylish. He is better
in following Kangana's findings than having his own
conviction.
The movie becomes so absurd that Irrfan is made to
sing and dance during his confession drama. The climax
gets even more comical with cops shooting the public
upon orders from the politicians. A SWAT team, which
is hell bent on killing Irrfan, cannot kill a single
man in doubt. We are made to laugh our lungs out when
Irrfan calls a random revenue department official
and asks for his account number to transfer Rs. 32,000
crore of black money from a bank in Switzerland. And
this is all done in the name of child welfare and
India's future. Sigh!
Irrfan tries to imitate Colin Farell in the initial
scenes but does a decent job overall. Sanjay Dutt
fits the bill and so does Kangana, though the blunder
in dressing up the journalist like a ramp model is
quite evident. There are so many pauses in the movie
and it is so evident that Irrfan wants to hang on
to the phone because the director has said so. The
flashbacks, the dialogues and the music do not warrant
any special mention. The movie's title is only justified
in the end when the title card says "We must
Knock Out this (Black money) system from India".
Wow!
Negatives:
Haven't you read the review yet?
Positives:
Thank goodness there are no songs in the movie.
Overall, Knock out is a farcical effort highlighting
the director's intent to religiously make it 'desi'.
It makes us wonder if our film industry is under serious
threat for want of good scripts. When we are complaining
about piracy and pirated DVDs why don't we ever discuss
plagiarism?
Verdict: Stay away unless you really want
to get knocked out!
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| Tags
: Knock
Out, Mani
Shankar, Sanjay
Dutt, Irfan
Khan,
Gourov
Dasgupta |
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