Ek Ajnabee Review

Big B is definitely angry, and this time he doesn't mouth any dialogues or throws an open challenge to the villains to come and confront him. He just goes and shoots. Bang! Game, set, match! And wow, don't you just like seeing that? Welcome to the 21st century interpretation of the angry old man Amitabh Bachchan who is a man on fire. The man who can gives back to the audience what they had been waiting for him to deliver for quite some time now - an action hero! While Big B shone in central roles for Black, Sarkar and Viruddh, they were still of the kinds that required a certain method of acting where a fine balance was required between catering to class and mass. But not with 'Ek Ajnabee' where he reaches out to masses in a big way! Result is a knockout performance where he looms large in every single frame of the movie from start to finish for this hardcore smasher commercial product by director Apoorva Lakhia.

Storyline is quite simple, nothing path breaking but just enough to make for a technically stylish action-drama. Bangkok is a city that is witnessing kidnapping incidents at rapid pace with rich people in constant fear and trauma. Ravi [Vikram Chatwal] and Nikasha [Perizaad Zorabian] are one such wealthy Indian couple living in Bangkok who want to protect their only daughter Anamika [Baby Rucha Vaidya]. Through Shekhar [Arjun Rampal], an ex-army man, they get in touch with Suryaveer Singh [Amitabh Bachchan], who was once Shekhar's superior in Indian army.

He reluctantly agrees to be Anamika's bodyguard but sticks to a professional relationship sans any emotional strings attached. Slowly, the girl's innocent yet straightforward and open attitude creates a special bond between her and her bodyguard that is impossible to break.

But the gang of kidnappers already has their eyes set on their next 'target' and despite all attempts of Suryaveer, Anamika gets kidnapped. In the process, Suryaveer is hit and while he is recuperating in hospital, Anamika is killed by her kidnappers. Stunned by the flow of incidents and distraught condition of Nikasha, Suryaveer vows to go to the root of the entire episode and kill each and ever player.

In this mission of his, he is supported by local police [Kelly Dorji] and an Indian settled in Bangkok - Kripa Shankar [Dayashanker Pandey]. On his journey he comes across various people who were involved at different stages; a local goon Lee Kap [Denzil Smith], a discotheque owner [Aditya Lakhia], tha man who staged the entire kidnapping drama [Raj Zutshi] and a couple of other faces that baffle his sensibilities!

It is commendable for director Apoorva Lakhia to present such a regular 'man takes revenge' story in such a captivating manner that you are hooked to the proceedings from Frame One. Opening shots of the regular life of Bangkok to the crime scenes to high rises to heavy moving traffic to monks - everything gets you the IN feeling for the movie that is absolutely required for a movie of such genre. Generally an action movie with a good plot gets distorted due to unnecessary distraction with either a hero-heroine plot or some other unwanted props or sub-plots. But not so for Ek Ajnabee where the cards are laid down at the very onset.

If the beginning portions are devoted to establishing the characters and creating the much-essential-to-the-narrative bond between Amitabh Bachchan and Rucha, the subsequent portions when the kidnapping drama happens are simply rocking. First few sequences do bring in smiles when the two interact but as soon as the action begins, there is no looking back!

One would have thought that the second half may take a fall with things turning predictable but that's not the case as both script and screenplay continue to be tight. The way Big B continues to be meticulous in his approach while reachi