INSUBCONTINENT EXCLUSIVE:
Image copyrightThugs of HindostanImage caption
Bollywood superstars Aamir Khan and Amitabh Bachchan feature together for
the first time ever in a film
Bollywood superstars Amitabh Bachchan and Aamir Khan have come together for the first time in
But, as Sudha G Tilak writes, the glossy period film about a rebellion against British rule has failed to excite critics and the box office
(Warning: This article contains spoilers.) Thugs of Hindostan is set in 19th-Century India with a noble guerrilla leader, played by
Bachchan, and his ragtag army, led by a fierce female archer, attacking mighty English ships to avenge their lost kingdom and assassinated
The 76-year-old Bachchan plays the role of the elder general, leading and mentoring his army
Khan plays a cocky robber with shifting loyalties
His duplicitous schemes include robbing local maharajahs and milking rewards from representatives of the East India Company - which was
transformed from a trading enterprise into the rulers of India - to whom he also plays informer
He infiltrates the gang of rebels led by Bachchan and wins their confidence
However, he later has a change of heart and joins them in defeating the British.Complete with kohl-lined eyes, Khan looks like a poor man's
Jack Sparrow - the lead character in Pirates of the Caribbean, the Disney franchise to which Thugs has been compared
both the guerrilla leader and a British general, played by British actor Lloyd Owen.The female lead is Fatima Sana Sheikh, who plays the
archer and is in many of the action scenes
But Bollywood star Katrina Kaif, playing the dancing girl
lacks a substantial part.Image copyrightThugs of HindostanImage caption
Aamir Khan (centre left) plays an irreverent
poor man's Jack Sparrow
Viewers have likened the premise of the film to Confessions of a Thug, an English novel written by
Philip Meadows Taylor in 1839
(The word thug, from the Hindi "thag", possibly goes back to the 14th Century, when huge criminal networks operated all around India's main
roads.)The novel told the story of Ameer Ali - a figure based on many of the "thugs" of the time - who waylaid rich travelling parties and
doubled as an informer to the British
The film tries to hit the high-octane notes with blistering cannon fire and special effects-aided fight sequences over seas with mighty
Warring thugs brandish swords and bare their knuckles
But despite it lavish production and array of stars, Thugs of Hindostan is no match for Pirates of the Caribbean, critics say
"From Amitabh Bachchan, who plays a rebellious pirate determined to free India from the clutches of the British Empire, to Aamir Khan, a
manipulative, self-seeking character that largely draws from the eccentricities of captain Jack Sparrow from the Pirates of the Caribbean
universe, there's nothing original or exciting about Thugs of Hindostan," wrote Ankur Pathak of the Huffington Post.NDTV found the
164-minute film "too tacky and unconvincing to lay legitimate claims to being India's answer to Pirates of the Caribbean"
Image copyrightAFPImage caption
Katrina Kaif, who plays a dancing girl, lacks a substantial part
"Big,
bloated, bombastic, Thugs Of Hindostan is a period saga that banks solely upon action and spectacle for impact," wrote Saibal Chatterjee
"The characters that populate it are, like the thousand ships that the film launches in the service of a bitter early 19th Century battle
between the fast-expanding British East India Company and a band of intrepid rebels who refuse to be enslaved by a foreign power, as flimsy
as cardboard," he added."This giant period epic turns out to be feeble, formulaic and entirely forgettable," chimed the Hindustan Times in
its takedown."I may be old school, but I believe pirate movies need to have eye-patches
This one doesn't, and that's a shame
The viewing experience would have been hugely improved
I should have gone in wearing two," wrote the paper's critic Raja Sen.However, the Guardian felt that Thugs "has that rare and unmistakable
look of an event movie that was huge fun to assemble"."We get tactical sea battles, plenty of cove action, swordfights choreographed like
dance numbers, even a fiery 19th-Century South Asian equivalent of a Norse burial
This is a film with money to burn, and it unabashedly torches each rupee before your eyes," wrote Mike McCahill.Thugs of Hindostan makes no
apologies for the money that has been spent to make this lavish production
However, the mixed reviews from fans and critics and early box office figures suggest money alone can't buy a film's success.
