Ek Tha Tiger

Salman Khan’s new film with YRF is indeed a good entertainer. A movie that is meant for entertainment has delivered its promise up to a good level with a neat mix of action, romance and moderate amount of melodrama. Story written by Aditya Chopra has his signature style of suspense which can distract some audience. Uncompromised action sequences and a neat story with less vulgarity and good dialogs makes it a happy watch.

The movie is about the RAW agent Tiger and his mission to observe a scientist who aided India in designing a missile deactivating setup. He needs to get closer to the scientist to check whether he is sharing the details with anyone else and for that he decides to become friends with Zoya who is living with the Scientist as a paying guest. During the course of the mission Tiger falls in love with Zoya, one thing which wasn’t allowed for an agent. How this relationship and the background of Zoya effects the life of Tiger and how he manages to get out of it is all about the movie.

The outline itself gives a plot for action, suspense and descent romantic fun. Kabir Khan and Neelesh Mishra have mixed it in the screenplay decently. Even the introduction scene of the character was really a cool one which follows the same style its trailer did. Portions of the movie may seem to be inspired version of movies like Mr and Mrs Smith. But for me that looked fair as they added some creativity in it. Less compromised technical backend and limited worthy casting are something’s that we can take as real positives from this one.

Performance wise, well Salman has done it really well with his cult action image. Nice portrayal of romantic and funny version of the character. Katrina again gives her best with a performance that has almost all shades of emotions. Both Katrina and Salman take a huge credit for doing the action sequences with such perfection. Ranvir Shorey as Gopi and Girish Karnad as Shenoy sir were also really impressive.

The technical side, I think this time Kabir Khan was able to mix his style of film with a totally commercial film and the result is a sensible action film that can never really happen. The screenplay is gentle with adequate allocation of ingredients. The beginning of the second half has some slightly dragging portions, but when compared to the recent YRF thrillers, the melodrama was much less. Dialogs aren’t like the Dabangg or Ready style ones which just praises the protagonist. Cool and practical dialogs and they are nicely rendered. The most awesome thing about the movie is its action. Practically impossible stunts executed in a way that looks practically possible. Salman’s introduction fight was really cool. The biggest surprise is the action of Katrina Kaif. A chase sequence in the second half were both Salman and Katrina tries to run away from ISI agents, Katrina got a lot of applauds for executing those risky building to building jumps. Only one jump in that sequence was flawed. Salman also delivers the action with much perfection. Editing was really good in the case of action sequences, but when it came to some emotional sequences a lack of planning was visible. The visual effects disappointed a little bit with some lighting errors in that road train sequence and final car chase sequence. Music is enjoyable and BGM was also adequate.

I am someone who feels that the previous monster hits of Salman Khan are undeserving. For me, Ek Tha Tiger is much better than those movies. It is not heroic as Dabangg, not over emotional as Body Guard and not filled with skit jokes like Ready. I would have given it a 3.5, but I am reducing a 0.5 for not using some of the good elements in the movie to complete extent. I am giving 3/5 and thumbs up for this cool and sensible Salman Khan starrer. For those who loved Dabangg and Bodyguard, this is a must watch as it may help you to raise your standard.