Review : Bholaa: A racy action thriller!

When lord Shiva is remembered, the image of a destroyer of evil, comes to mind. More often Shiva is used symbolically in films where a protagonist fights the evilness of the antagonist. Shiva’s Tandav is famous when he opens his third eye to destroy the mighty evil forces. Ajay Devgn directed Bholaa follows these steps as the protagonist Bholaa (another name of Shiva) ventures out to fight the enemy for helping the law enforcement department as well as a personal benefit in the form of meeting his daughter for the first time. Bholaa is an official adaptation of a Tamil movie Kaithi which was directed by Lokesh Kanagaraj. In the Hindi version Ajay Devgn holds the reins as a director and plays the lead role of Bholaa. Bholaa channels his inner anger to fight like a fearless warrior.

Bholaa (AjayDevgn), comes out of the jail after ten years and wants to meet his only daughter whom he has never met. But the circumstances compel him to help SP Diana Joseph (Tabu). Diana has captured a big haul of drugs worth 1000 crore rupees and the drug lords are hell bent on retrieving that. Unfortunately, or as per the plan of bad guys, the entire team consumes alcohol laced with a chemical which makes them unconscious for 6-8 hours. Diana wants them to have medical treatment as soon as possible and first requests and then browbeats Bholaa into driving the truck full of police personnel to the hospital. She promises him to unite him with his daughter. But it is not an easy task as the villains keep attacking Diana and the truck but Bholaa’s heroics save them. What transpires during the journey and afterwards forms the crux of the story.

As most of the other language films’ hindi dubbed versions are available on OTT platforms, most the remakes do not touch a cord with the viewers. Though Ajay starrer Drishyam 2 was successful, most of the other remakes couldn’t find audience support. But here Devgn has taken care of infusing fresh elements suitable for Hindi speaking audiences and has avoided a copy-paste version. Ajay has kept the film pacy and the choreographed action scenes are the USP of the film. There definitely is a novelty in action scenes and VFX and the execution is to the point. The second half takes care of the emotional quotient but the film never drags. The music is good and the ‘Item-Song’ by Raai Laxmi adds entertainment to the proceedings. The production values are high and the cinematography is excellent. The film moves at a fast pace and the interspersed action scenes holds viewers’ attention. Ajay Devgn is the central pillar of Bholaa and he delivers handsomely. He effectively uses silence and his action scenes are tremendously good. Tabu too lends him solid support and scores with the action as well as emotional scenes. Deepak Dobriyal is good too. Sanjay Mishra, Amala Paul, Gajraj Rao, Vineet Kumar lend good support.

Bholaa is a racy action thriller which’ll be loved by Ajay Devgn fans.

***1/2

Keerti Kadam.