Off the Rails

RUSLAAN ★■ Director: karanlalitbutani Cast: aayush sharm a, jag a pat hi ba bu, vi dy a

Malva de, sus hr ii sh rey ami sh ra a, been ab an erjee

THERE WAS a time when Bollywood flicks didn’t really bother about coherent plots as long as there were enough formulaic set pieces to please those who came for just those bits and pieces. Watching Ruslaan takes you back to that era and makes you wonder if Hindi cinema will ever learn. At least in those days, there were enough takers for this kind of cobble-together naachgaana-maar-dhaad filmmaking to be viable: who watches this stuff these days?

As to the film itself, it features Aayush Sharma as Ruslaan, a singer-dancer-fighter who can pass off as a guitar-slinging youthful teacher amongst college kids, as well as take on a bunch of supposedly deadly terrorists single-handedly. His big thing in life is to wipe off the dhabba of being ‘a terrorist’s son’, and convince everyone, whether it is the policeman (Jagapathi Babu) who adopted him, or the senior RAW operative (Malvade) who recruits him, that he can live and die for his beloved Hindustan.

It’s hard to believe that these cliches still exist. A hero’s sidekick, called Tabla (that’s right), who eats a lot, and cracks codes. A svelte female spy (Sushrii Shreya Mishra) who can deliver solid kicks and punches, but never gets to do anything on her own except make eyes at a bad guy. Several scenes dedicated to empty chatter about ‘desh ke liye jeena-marna’. A Chinese baddie who likes torturing people. And a lead character who keeps getting told ‘no action, only report’, because that’s what ‘RAW agents’ are apparently meant to do. But of course, heroes have to jump and thump. And make us flee.