Rustom Review

Expectations

Akshay Kumar is riding high with his series of good films like 'Special 26', 'Baby', 'Holiday' and 'Airlift'. The majority of these films had patriotism as its backdrop, making Akshay the modern day Bharat Kumar (tag given to Manoj Kumar for his contribution of patriotic films like 'Upkar', 'Purab Aur Pachim', 'Shahid', 'Kranti', etc.).

The good will is so high that right from the first trailer of 'Rustom', the audience were waiting to see their actor back on silver screen displaying his love for our country. The expectations are sky high and being a long weekend, looks like 'Rustom' might have some gala time at the box-office.

Story

'Rustom' is a story of a Naval Commander Rustom Pavri (Akshay Kumar), who comes to know that his wife Cynthia Pavri (Ileana D'Cruz) is having an affair with his friend Vikram Makhija (Arjan Bajwa). Furious Rustom kills Vikram while confronting him, after which surrenders himself to Inspector Lobo (Pawan Malhotra). Vikram's sister Priti (Esha Gupta) hires the top lawyer Lakshman Khangani (Sachin Khedekar), as want to get Rustom punished. This sets the controversial trial where the jury has to decide about the fate of Rustom Pavri.

The 'Glitz' Factor

The story is mainly inspired from the Nanavati case and has several references with it. It's only that the writers have added some Navy based twist and have tried to blend another incident with this real life happening. There are some good scenes related to Akshay Kumar, especially in the second half where all the court room drama takes place. These scenes are the saving grace in this slow and predictable film.

There are some entertaining moments in the second half which will engage the audience to the silver screen. The music of 'Rustom' has 'Tere Sang Yaar' to cherish as the song takes you to another level. Right from it's composing to singing to its choreography in beautiful locations.

Akshay Kumar as Naval officer looks smashing and is the biggest saving grace of this movie. His role hardly has anything to do in the first half and outshines only in the second half. He is one actor who is totally in his character and performs it in a realistic manner, while the rest all are shown hamming in most of the film. Ileana D'Cruz looks smashing in her Parsi avatar, but has a very minimal contribution. Kumud Mishra, Sachin Khedekar and Pawan Malhotra lend good support. Usha Nadkarni is comic relief.

The 'Non-Glitz' Factor

The first half takes lots of time to get established, followed by a relatively better second half. The slow narrative, predictable screenplay and forced twist ruins the impact of the film. The court room drama in the second half takes an eternity and is highly stretched. Everything is easily shown in the films, especially Akshay gets all the evidence and presenting them in a smart manner.

Also, the continuity jerks in the film ruin the impact of the film. Almost every supporting actor is hamming especially Esha Gupta, who performs with her forced cleavage show and odd poses. The C.G.I works are tacky and looks highly gaudy. There are several bad to worse special effect scenes which ruin the impact of the film. They don't only look fake, but also look jarring at times.

Director Tinu Suresh Desai gets a great opportunity of making a film on one of the most dramatic cases from our country and fails to do proper justice to it. He presents the movie in total tacky and outdated manner, especially the court room drama. The movie is engaging and also entertaining, but in totally 80's style of a pot boiler. His way of blending a different story to the Nanavati case fails to work in the favour of the film.

Esha Gupta and her loud attire distract the viewers for the wrong reasons. All she did in this movie was to smoke, show her anger, talk like a seductress and titillate with her forced cleavage show. Arjan Bajwa too has the weirdest of attire in the film. Parmeet Sethi, Kanwaljit Singh, Brijendra Kale, Anang Desai and others are wasted.

Final 'Glitz'

Keeping aside the high expectations, 'Rustom' ends up being a one time pot-boiler drama, which works only in parts and that too for 'Akshay Kumar' as its sole positive reason. Akshay fans who are expecting yet another 'Special 26' or 'Baby' or 'Airlift', will be highly disappointed as the movie comes now here to these classics.