Way off the playground

Khiladi786
Hindi (U)
Cast: Akshay Kumar, Asin, Himesh Reshammiya
Director: Ashish R Mohan

Akshay can’t find a bride. Asin can’t find a groom. Blame it on the gene pool, or rather, goon pool. Both come from families with an impressive crime record. And it’s up to wedding planner Himesh Reshammiya to find a match for the two.

Khiladi 786 never insists that you possess that thing called brain. And it never pretends it has one too. Good, it’s a comedy then. Sad, the funny bone peeks out only in cameos.

As all the sidekicks scream their tonsils out, an all-decked-up Asin seems to be participating in a “flaring the nostrils” contest, accomplishing the widest point whenever she spots suitor Akshay.

Mr Khiladi consumes several reels dreaming about Asin, dancing further away from a where-is-it plot. Now, Asin’s love, named Azad (Rahul Singh), tastes freedom in short intervals before he is thrown back into jail for his eternally goofy ways.

All the supposed tomfoolery scales several Everests of stupidity, but one must be thankful for small mercies like Himesh Reshammiya who appears a fine actor amidst a crowd of jokers.

Akshay punches men into pulp with his now-familiar deadpan look, and zooms off in cars till the speedometer calls it quits.

But the action is not so extraordinary to mend all the dents it makes while pounding the script. All this while, a caricature of a don Mithun Chakraborty tries hard to cling on to some sanity, but droops, just like his moustache.

This Khiladi is way off the mark.