While Vijay Sethupathi’s Sangatamizhan’s has run into financial issues, delaying its release at the very last moment, it was quite surprising to see the actor come up on screen at first. He’s here to give us a disclaimer but the fans are excited to be surprised in this manner.
“The film has been shot in different countries and the characters will speak in different languages. Subtitles might be distracting for the audience. Therefore, for the convenience of the Tamil audience, all characters, irrespective of which part of the world they are from, will speak in Tamil,” he says and we are happy to play along. Turkish men speaking Tamil? Why not?
Vishal-Tamannaah starrer Action has plenty of action, no doubt. The film jumps, rolls and air flips from one chase-action sequence to another of which just a couple of them are memorable. The film is an action lover’s capital. If you love watching cars ram into each other, full grown men thrown to shatter glass walls and tables, buildings blow up while the main character does an insane flying jump, and all the dishkawn-dishkawn! Then Action will not disappoint. The story is just an afterthought. The less said about the most cliched plot, the better.
But we’ll tell you a little about it because it’s quite short. The hero goes on a mission to avenge the death of someone close to him. Hint: When a film stars two popular women actors, you know something untoward is going to happen to one of them. Also, Subash (Vishal) who is enrolled in the army, is Tamil Nadu Chief Minister’s second son. Sorry we didn’t mean to drop a bomb like that, the makers did.
Actor Ramki plays the Chief Minister’s first son and first-in-line to become the next Chief Minister. Actor Chaya Singh plays Ramki’s wife and Aishwarya Lekshmi who plays Meera is her sister. Aishwarya who played a riveting Apu in Maayanadhi barely speaks in this one. In one scene, she’s literally unable to speak. Tamannaah plays Dia, an army woman who has trained alongside Subash.
In Action, director Sundar C has presented the same stale dish on a different plate. Before watching this film, it is best to brush up your geography - since the film travels through India, United Kingdom, Turkey and Pakistan.
Thankfully, they’ve converted the long and arduous road trip that Subash and Dia embark upon from Istanbul in Turkey to somewhere in Pakistan (over 5000 kilometres, we checked) into a single song sequence that’s happening inside Dia’s head. In it she’s dancing around an oblivious Vishal, as an expression of her one-sided love. By the end of the song, they enter into a tunnel in Afghanistan and exit somewhere in Pakistan. We’ve arrived!
One half of the film is spent in Subash chasing after Kiara (Akanksha Puri), a trained assassin. The stunt sequence choreographed atop a building, in which Subash and Kiara are swinging down from iron railings and AC units outside windows, is one among the best in this film.
When Yogi Babu comes on screen, it comes as a relief. He plays ‘Crack’ Jack, a professional hacker and has some funny lines in the beginning. His character is let off even though it might have been interesting to have had him around for longer. A hacker might come in handy in a film such as Action. But not to worry, everyone’s got a good knowledge of hacking/tracking in Action-verse. In the second half, Dia takes over.
The film throws in one twist after another mainly to connect the action blocks. The mission is to bring back a wanted terrorist harboured by Pakistan back to India. There might be some glaring plot holes, for instance, why is a woman like Dia who can kick the daylights out of men and jump across buildings swooning when she’s around Subash? Or which Chief Minister is pranked by his son to go on a holiday? But who is going to have the time to notice all that when there are cars diving into the air and buildings exploding?
By the time the movie ends, it might seem like you entered the theatre yesterday, in a different country. Whew!
Disclaimer: This review was not paid for or commissioned by anyone associated with the series/film. TNM Editorial is independent of any business relationship the organisation may have with producers or any other members of its cast or crew.