Before moving into the review, I would like to state that I love MASALA MOVIES made for the masses, a lot. And in fact I used to be one of the few people in the hall who dared to shout, whistle and dance whenever their favorite hero or song came on the screen. But those were the years of the last century and the changing times have hugely changed the movie watching experience a lot (may be for the better, as they say). However from the inside, I still remain the same excited moviegoer, who readily feels the butterflies in his stomach while watching his lovable hero dancing on a HIT song being flashed on the silver screen.
For the record, I immensely enjoyed last two movies of Salman and could easily appreciate and relate with the star enigma in DABANGG. But this time, I really was unable to either appreciate or enjoy the trash served hot in the shape of READY this Friday. While watching it I was neither able to cherish the lovable Salman Khan acting his own-self on the screen nor I could take pleasure in the two HIT songs being played loud. In short, the film is a complete washout right till the end with only a few places where you are able to laugh out loud.
It starts off with a usual and needless 2 minute credit animation sequence and then after the not so happening entry of Salman you right away get the first item song. There is simply no story development in its initial hour and before the intermission, all its characters are just moving here and there on the screen with a little pinch of love, hate, action, chase and all the usual stuff. In other words, there is nothing in the name of WRITING in its first half.
The story, (if you consider it a story at all) actually starts off post intermission and then at least you get a few scenes which make you smile and laugh with your loved hero. But then the climax as expected from the director Aneez Bazmee, is another bizarre one from him where the villains get beaten in a comic style and they even enjoy the shower of little boys delivering from the first floor. The film simply reveals the lack of vision in its Captain of the ship despite of the fact that he had the TELUGU original in front of him as a base to work upon. The director in a very silly and questionable manner keeps following the South flavor of the subject and makes no changes at all as per the likings of the Hindi Film viewers. For instance few of his earlier films were a remake of their South Originals too, yet you never felt that while seeing them. But strangely while watching READY in the first half, I had the feeling as if I was watching a dubbed South Hit film on a Cable TV Channel.
Its no-doubt a Salman film all the way, but somehow this time I even couldn't enjoy Salman's performance too as he doesn't seem to be acting in the movie at all. To be straight, Salman plays his character in a very cool but careless kind of style which even looks a bit over- confident and over the top at times. For instance, just watch out the scenes where both Salman and Asin are hanging from a tree or when Salman turns over declaring the intermission. Though I did enjoy some realistic kind of dialogues and one liners by Salman in the movie but overall it surely cannot be included in the list of the actor's better performances of his career ever.
Asin on the other hand looks both ravishing as well as tired in her various sequences. May be she should blame her stylist and make-up artist for that. Paresh Rawal tries hard but doesn't get any good lines or scenes (making an entry post interval). And the entire rest of the cast do more of shouting than acting. Sanjay Dutt, Ajay Devgan, Arbaaz Khan, Chunky Pandey and Kangna don't add any extra value to the film in their one scene appearance. But Zarine Khan looks hot in her item number. Musically the two HIT songs of the film give their much required support to its overall impact on the audiences especially through their superb choreography. Whereas its Cinematography and Background score, both just serve the purpose.
Summing up, I would like to say that in India, since star worship is the main guiding force towards film-making, therefore READY would surely be seen and loved by all Salman fans as a must. But the film certainly would not get a unanimous positive response as earlier enjoyed by few Salman releases. And for this I don't blame SALMAN and neither I blame the producers or actors of the film. For this feeble and unexplainable kind of attempt I entirely blame its director Aneez Bazmee who constantly keeps giving us films like these and this time he even fails to encash one of the biggest craze of our nation, Salman Khan.
So if you love Salman, then do watch READY only to satisfy your star- love. But truly speaking I enjoyed watching Mahesh Manjrekar & Sudesh Lehri more in the film than anybody else along with the gorgeous Asin.
