True to its name, An Action Hero delivers a cocktail of power-packed sequences—action, unexpected misadventures, Bollywood boycotts to primetime news commentary. Headlined by Ayushmann Khurrana and Jaideep Ahlawat, the film swings between action and meta jokes to serve as a mostly fun offering, a mindless entertainer that you can just sit back and enjoy.
Directed by the debutant Anirudh Iyer, An Action Hero is an anomaly in Khurrana’s filmography, who is known to star in social dramas sprinkled with comical elements (with the exceptions of Anek and Article 15). As Khurrana flirts with this new genre, he mostly succeeds.
A gripping cat-and-mouse chase
Khurrana plays a Bollywood superstar called Maanav, who is known as a quintessential action hero to his diehard fans. Things change for the worse in his dreamy, king-size life when he goes to Haryana for a film shoot. An unexpected altercation with a Jaat youth results in a fatal accident, prompting Maanav to flee the northern hinterlands and make a dash for London. “I’ll do what Mallya and Nirav did,” he tells a fellow actor he meets on the plane.
Hot on his heels is Bhoora (Jaideep Ahlawat), brother of the Jat youth who died in a brawl with Maanav. And here begins Maanav’s quest for survival, as Bhoora tries to catch him before the cops can.
While a well-paced cat-and-mouse chase keeps you engaged, the story lacks depth. But the template is such that the thought rarely crosses your mind. Tanishk Bagchi’s score is well suited to the necessities of a caper like An Action Hero. Gripping action sequences and suave dialogue delivery further help the film score brownie points and bonus laughs from the audience.
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Khurrana, Ahlawat pairing works
Khurrana, despite being out of his ‘comfort zone’ (read: his staple genre), delivers a performance that is vain, over in his head, foolhardy and overconfident — characteristics synonymous with a pompous Bollywood superstar. He doesn’t take himself too seriously, which works in his favour and the film’s. It is not Khurrana’s best but manages to impress regardless.
Ahlawat, playing the parallel lead, moulds himself effortlessly into Bhoora. His ease with the Haryanvi dialect is evident from his perfect dialogue delivery. In fact, he often outperforms everyone else in the scene.
Besides Ahlawat and Khurrana, hectoring TV anchors dancing to the beats of half-baked investigation and poor journalism add colour to the film. Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery but that is hardly the case here. For instance, one anchor advocates throwing Maanav out of the country while the other breaks into, “drrrugs, give me drrugs” at the drop of a hat.
Iyer has managed to weave an engaging and fun film that you may not regret watching. But beyond that, there is nothing more to it. An Action Hero, with its 129-minute runtime, makes for a fun one-time watch.
(Edited by Zoya Bhatti)