Guns Of Banaras review: Masala film that's at least a decade out of date

India has a large number of Hindi television channels that show dubbed versions of South Indian masala action films 24x7. These films follow a set formula of a tussle between the ‘hero’ and a baddie and his gang.

The hero also loves a shy, homely girl who keeps appearing in between, especially during the musical interludes. Meanwhile, the tussle between him and the bad guys is stretched for two hours or more after which the good guy kills them all.

Director Shekkhar Suri’s Guns Of Banaras follows pretty much the same trajectory. The story is set in Banaras in Uttar Pradesh and follows the life of Guddu Shukla (Karann Nathh).

Guddu is a happy-go-lucky young man who lives with his parents (the late Vinod Khanna and Zarina Wahab) and a younger sister. Guddu constantly bears the brunt of his father's criticism for not earning a livelihood and whiling away his time with friends instead. Then he falls for a girl (Nathalia Kaur).

When he realizes that he won't be able to marry the girl he loves if he does not earn a living, Guddu finds a job with a firm. His work involves travelling on his motorbike, which he loves dearly. One day the bike gets stolen. This brings him into confrontation with a dreaded gangster (Abhimanyu Singh) and his brother.

Guns Of Banaras is the official remake of the Tamil film Polladhavan (2007), which this reviewer hasn’t seen. Directed by Vetrimaaran, it starred Dhanush.

The basic tale of Polladhavan was interesting, and the writers of Guns Of Banaras have retained it as is. This means the director had a good story at his disposal. But one also needs to remember that Polladhavan was released 13 years ago. A lot has changed in India in these 13 years, including audience tastes. Plus, such formulaic films are available daily on many satellite television channels.

To be fair, Guns Of Banaras shows promise in the first half. Though the story develops slowly, by the time the interval comes around, you are keen to know what happens next.

After the interval, however, Guns Of Banaras does not seem to have much of a story to tell. All we get are repetitive scenes with the story hardly going forward. This is felt the most during the confrontation scenes between Abhimanyu Singh’s character and his brother, which also induce unintentional hilarity later on. At one point, the story takes a major turn only to prove a false alarm later.

Guns Of Banaras marks actor Karann Nathh's comeback after more than a decade. Nathh has maintained himself well and he certainly looks the part of Guddu Shukla. As an actor he is not bad either, but his performance is not powerful enough to get you rooting for Guddu.

Worse, a silly act by Guddu makes you question the character's intelligence and motivation. There comes a point when Guddu feels guilty that he is not earning his keep. His father has given up on him by then and hands over all his savings to his son. So what does Guddu do? He goes out and buys his favourite motorbike!

Of the cast, Mohan Agashe and Abhimanyu Singh show maturity in their performances. Shilpa Shirodkar, who makes a comeback to Hindi cinema after 20 years, surprises you by playing a cunning character with grey shades with ease.

One other problem with Guns Of Banaras is that the title just does not suit the film. The bad guys mostly use outdated weapons like swords. There is even a scene where the goons are attacking Guddu’s parents and sister who are travelling in an autorickshaw. Instead of first rushing to save his family, Guddu decides to finish off the goons’ boss.

Maybe even Guddu Shukla knew that the old-fashioned weapons would not do much damage.