In a world where nuance has gone right out of the window, Tiger Shroff's Ronnie might be the hero we deserve. The buff actor takes on an entire country in the latest installment of the Baaghi franchise, directed by Ahmed Khan. The trailer for the film, which releases on 6 March, is all-action, explosive, dynamic, and unbelievable.
The trailer follows the story of two brothers, Ronnie and Vikram (Riteish Deshmukh). While Vikram is the soft, kind man who is a police officer, it is Ronnie who does the heavy lifting for him. Every time Vikram runs into a goon he cannot sort out, he screams out his sibling's name and voilà, a bone-breaking solution appears. There is a slight hint at 'Baba', a role reportedly played by Jackie Shroff, slipped into the dialogues as well.
The trouble emerges when Vikram is sent for a simple documentation thing to Syria, of all places in the world. He ends up being killed while on video-call with his brother. The enemies, whom we assume are ISIS (the Islamic State of Iraq and al-Sham), have no idea Ronnie is coming.
He does. Then, he destroys bones, tanks, gunship helicopters, and entire army bases. He outruns bullets, rappels horizontally across cars, slides beneath the minutest gaps underneath tanks, and drop-kicks villains multiple times within a minute like a Made-In-India Bruce Lee. If that was not enough, there is an entire hero shot dedicated to a replication of a Captain America moment with Shroff's Ronnie withstanding a hail of bullets with an armoured shield.
To think that Shroff is already signed on to play the Hindi remake of Rambo, makes one wonder what action sequence is left for him to do.
Shraddha Kapoor and Ankita Lokhande play the love interests of the two leads, while Vijay Varma latches on as an informer in Syria. Jaideep Ahlawat also puts in a turn as the curiously named IPL, a boss in the desolate country, who might have a hidden ace up his sleeve.
But let's not fool around. The film is all about Tiger Shroff's martial abilities, and he shows off with style. The action choreography looks stellar in the trailer, and might get the wolf-whistles it is aiming for.
The issue though is the broad brush with which the makers choose to paint an entire country as evil. The people of Syria are terrorized and abandoned by the ISIS more than anyone else, but this is Hindi cinema. We don't do nuances. We do good vs bad. Sometimes, that is good for the big screen.
Baaghi 3 (2020) is produced by Sajid Nadiadwala, and co-produced by Fox Star Studios. The film will release in theatres on 6 March. Watch the trailer below, and let us know if you are keen to watch the film.