When Vijay said “Antha bhayam Irikkattum” to Vidyut Jamwal there was an element of fun and fire in it that made the scene worth applauding and when it comes to Holiday – A soldier is never off duty Akshay Kumar delivers the same dialogue with lack of fire in it and it gets zero attention from the viewer. The basic difference between Thuppakki and Holiday for me with reference to this particular scene is that Holiday lacked style. The story was an interesting one from Murugadoss with usual bit of exaggeration and a relatively fresh style in treatment. There isn’t any tweak in the storyline but the treatment becomes slightly dull.
The story revolves around the holidays of an army officer Virat Bakshi. During these days he happens to witness a blast in Mumbai city. The committed army man decides to hunt down the people behind this brutal act with his own intelligence and tactics. How he manages to bring an end to this possible cancer of mishaps is what Holiday discussing.
An area where the film showed an improvement was in action. Thuppakki was a film where I felt Vijay’s stunt skills where used less. Having the Khiladi Akshay Kumar in the slot has given Murugadoss a chance to explore something with fight and you get to see some amount of brutal action in that last segment. It would have been awesome if we got to see Akki Vs Vidyut on screen as the new comer Freddy Daruwala really looked like a hopeless Aashiqui 2 hero. On those patriotic knots Holiday also hits the target with same intensity.
The direction is satisfactory from the director. I believe it was the writing part that made the difference. A number of scenes that created impression in Thuppakki looked pretty dull in Holiday. The scene I mentioned in the beginning and the scene where Virat offers a choice for the corrupt officer to die are two of those that I could easily recollect. Dialogues lacked that fire at some occasions. Cinematography is okay. Stunts are fine. Liked the Shayrana song even though I didn’t liked its placement. The altered version of the Thuppakki BGM wasn’t impressive.
On screen Akshay Kumar was good with his acrobatics and smiling face. But the dialog delivery lacked style. I hope you can easily recognize that from the “I am waiting” in the trailer. Sonakshi is okay in this squeezed in heroine character. Every scene of Jayaram in Thuppakki was extremely annoying but here Govinda did that part really well. Freddy Daruwala wasn’t impressive as the head of sleeper cells.
So overall, Holiday was an average entertainer for me. Some minor improvements are there compared to Thuppakki, but lack of style was a crucial miss. Rating is 2.5/5 for Holiday : watchable flick. Dear army brothers, you guys are awesome. Salute.
Green: Recommended Content
Orange: The In-Between Ones
Red: Not Recommended
