Brothers (I) (2015)

Karan Malhotra , the director of new Agneepath had impressed me with his intense and focus in direction in his first film. It was to the point and he has a knack of extracting great performances from his cast. But there is a self-indulgence in him which he is unable to control in some of the films important junctures. He had plenty of them in Agneepath climax and it is there in plenty all throughout brothers especially in first half. I don't have a problem with slow pace . It helps invest ourselves into the characters. I loved pace of Drishyam , gone girl, Shawshank redemption and so on. But I am not a fan of overstretched scenes which is the case in a lot of scenes of brothers. Jackie Shroff is a drunkard who has doting wife/son and a step son. we get it in the first instance. WE get the lives and turbulence of each of them in first instance. There is no need to slow down and stretch them so much. Karan has tweaked the character of tom hardy who had a rather coolness about himself that he dint care about any of his family members. here Sid is shown as a "dutiful" son which is filmy and reduces the complexity of the character. No fault of Sid Malhotra who has done very well in is role. The heart of the film lies in R2F ( meant to be UFC of real world) championship. The training montage of Akshay and Sid is awe- inspiring . The action choreography is not just brilliant but 1000000 MILES AHEAD of anything BW has given so far. But every time the adrenaline rush is poised to reach the next level, Karan squanders it by slowing the pace with irrelevant scenes. The fight scenes are so well choreographed but camera-work is not as good. What is the need to show expressions of Jacqueline and Kulbhushan Kharbanda in between, every single time? who cares how they are reacting! we want to see the fights uncut and in flow. The real coolness and brain of brothers is thanks to Eric Brown and Micheal Leher, the action choreographers. Thanks to these two talented people that at least each of the fight scenes has a unique personality and attitude in them. Siddharths fight scenes are about not just about brute force . They reflect a personality of one kind of fighting style. He views his opponents like his brother and thinks of ways to knock him out as fast as possible. While its the reverse for Akshay Kumar. His style is a different personality by itself. His signature moves are about exposing weaknesses of the fighter and then dominating them with technique. In this process, he allows himself to take a few blows if needed. I wish the film was directed by these two instead. Akshay Kumar takes his acting notch above baby and comes up with a subtle yet intense performance. His acting in climax is superb and he is at the peak of his career as an actor. Sidharth Malhotra is avg in first half but comes into his own in the second half. His scene with Jackie Shroff asking him to about the dilemma of his sons is brilliant. Jacqueline is very good as Akshays wife and gives realistic performance though her scenes were just not needed in second half. Jackie Shroff shouts , whispers and irritates in a role which needed someone more mature like Paresh Rawal may be Brothers is a very good effort to remake warrior but it is not entirely satisfying . it could have been a real masterpiece after baby. But its not a film to be missed because of strong performances from Akshay and Sidharth Malhotra. and of course the eye pleasing action scenes for the action junkies