Movie Review - Aa Gaya Hero by Suhel Johar

Aa Gaya Hero Just Makes You Wonder ‘Kahan Gaya Hero’.

 

A small-scale movie with big hopes called Aa Gaya Hero, previously titled Abhinay Chakra,  finally opened in cinemas after several changes to its release schedule. An out and out masala film on the lines of late 80s and early 90s potboiler cinema Aa Gaya Hero has been directed by Dipankar Senapati. The film is primarily for the interiors but the absence of a known leading lady or a chartbuster song hampers the box office prospects of the film further.

Despite a concerted effort, Govinda struggled to find a distributor to release his film, which he has written and produced. The film was supposed to be a vehicle to help Govinda resurrect his non-existent career. But instead with Aa Gaya Hero, director Dipankar Senapati ensures that he ends up being a zero. The film definitely has Govinda’s stamp all over it but is the audience keen on watching outdated gags with no technical finesse? Can the ‘90s’ formula of success still garner interest from the audience?

The film begins with a case of serial bomb blasts. Various men with heads wrapped in saris or scarves, one with a distinctive and menacing laugh, are behind the crime. From a living room somewhere, terrible computer graphics catapult the man with laugh into a cave where he is facing high tech equipment. It’s so tacky you wonder why they bothered to keep that shot because the cave isn’t significant in what is going to transpire in the next two hours.

Enter ACP Ravinder Verma (Govinda), an honest, earnest and fearless police officer who is genuinely concerned about bringing down the crime rate in the country. To deal with the situation Ravindra Verma plans a unique strategy to catch the bad guys. He titles his master plan ‘Abhinay Chakra’ and presents a file about this plan to the president of the country. How he succeeds takes the story forward.

As more and more characters are introduced and multiple sub-plots running simultaneously with no concrete goal the film seems like a test of endurance to sit through the film. The film is pitiable and there are too many cinematic liberties in the script to be ignored. There are moments in the film that are either unnecessary or fail to evoke any emotion. In terms of keeping you hooked, the film is patchy and inconsistent. Credited with story, screenplay, dialogues and lyrics, as a writer, Govinda fails to construct an engaging screenplay and his dialogues are crass. Clearly, he did not take into account the kind of content the audience engages with today. The screenplay is so much in ruins that Govinda feels the need to explain every random stuff through a voiceover.

In addition to its fundamental flaws, numerous forced gags and songs in the film are irksome. There are just too many scenes and characters in the film that are not justified. The logistics and facts shown in the film are questionable. The script while trying to be subtly self-glorifying, is messy, outdated and crass.

The film is horribly crafted as it lacks finesse in all aspects right from the writing to the execution and you feel like watching a Z-grade film of the early 1980s.

The Govinda we see in this film is a mere caricature of his old self who had earned the sobriquet as the Entertainer No. 1. Sadly the once upon a time entertainer makes a desperate and shabby attempt to reclaim lost stardom and fading fame. It’s tragic almost to see that in every frame. No matter how enthusiastic and sincere he comes across, Govinda is no longer the Entertainer No. 1.

Performance-wise, Govinda tries hard to entertain you but fails miserably due to a horrendous script. His dance steps now seem jaded. He clearly lacks the energy and charisma he once exuded.

Chandrachur Singh is decent. Harish Kumar passes muster. Ashutosh Rana is okay. Murali Sharma is competent. Makarand Deshpande is irritating. Richa Sharma and Poonam Pandey are forgettable.   

Debutant director Dipankar Senapati fails to weave together an impressive film. Cinematography is okay. The visual effects are outdated and tacky. Music is unbearable.

On the whole, Aa Gaya Hero, is a forgettable film that will serve as a stunning warning to Bollywood actors well past their prime longing to revive their careers. Instead of trying to make a comeback he could well have launched his son Harshvardhan who is waiting in the wings.