Sanak

Vidyut Jamwal is an actor who has built a brand for himself as this action hero who features in a specific kind of action movie where he is always against an army of men. Be it the Commando series or the recent one, Khuda Haafiz, his films were always built around action and not the other way. The latest one in that filmography is Kanishk Varma’s Sanak. Yet again, nothing is exciting on the writing part and what you get is a two-hour-long movie that makes sure that at least one bullet shot is there every 5 minutes.

Vivaan Ahuja and Anshika Maitra are a couple, and Anshika is going through a major health problem. She undergoes one major surgery, and on her discharge day, a group of armed terrorists decided to attack the hospital. They took all the patients and staff as hostages but missed Vivaan. Vivaan would go to any extend to protect Anshika, and the movie shows us his fight to save his wife.

I wasn’t a huge fan of Jamwal’s last film Khuda Haafiz. But when compared to Sanak, I think it felt like a much better film. Sanak is almost like a lazy copy of Die Hard 4. Vivaan is McClane, the motive to do the mission is to save a loved one, a boy who knows about all the gadget stuff is there to help him, and the villain has some military links as well. But writer Ashish Verma has no aspirations to make Sanak look like a solid adaptation. In fact, the character development is so lame that you end up feeling nothing for those hostages. There is a sequence where the heroine takes the risk of taking her phone out to send some cheesy message to her husband. She might have survived the heart disease, but she definitely needs some lectures on applying common sense.

Vidyut Jamwal, as usual, is brilliant when it comes to action. But he wobbles big time when it comes to emotional sequences. The writing is so desperate to create punch lines, and the hero unnecessarily gives complicated answers to simple, straightforward questions. Debutant Rukmini Maitra as Anshika doesn’t have much to do here, and the writing of that character might make us hate her for the level of stupidity. Neha Dhupia gets a pointless role as the police officer in charge. Chandan Roy Sanyal has the perfect attitude to be the bad guy, but the writing has no plans to add layers to that character.

Kanishk Varma doesn’t have much support from the writing department and what can be appreciated is the film’s production design. And obviously, the quality of the fight is better than any other film since you have a hero who doesn’t need stunt doubles. The plan is to cater to an audience who wants to see some fight with a very basic story. What prevented the police from taking action even after Vivaan gave them all the vital information is still a mystery to me. Multiple innocent people have died in the incident, and yet the movie celebrates the ultimate victory as a clean sweep.

If you have enjoyed watching the Commando franchise and Khuda Haafiz because you felt they had content, then you don’t even need a reviewer’s take to decide whether to watch Sanak or not. Sanak is one more expensive portfolio shoot for Vidyut Jamwal. And just like Tiger Shroff movies, we are no longer expecting the presence of solid writing in Vidyut Jamwal’s action films.