Fighter

Jeet,in his new action-hero avatar,hits the bulls-eye with the title-role in Ravi Kinagis Fighter which,despite the charismatic presence of Srabonti,does not have too much of romance.

Jeet,in his new action-hero avatar,hits the bulls-eye with the title-role in Ravi Kinagis Fighter which,despite the charismatic presence of Srabonti who can kick up some lightning screen chemistry with the resurrected Jeet,does not have too much of romance.

The doses of romance are cleverly veiled in good-humoured subterfuge,some naughty uptakes and remains marginalised by song-and-dance numbers shot on picturesque locations.

The story begins with the pretty Srabonti driving off in a scooty a few minutes before her forced wedding to a nutcase. Dont ask why,ask her millionaire father Joy Badlani who made the choice. She smartly negotiates her way to reach her loverboy,the eight-abs Surya Jeet who piggybacks on her scooty in an exuberant style,gets off midway,shoots the DGP and gets back on the scooty.

The film flashes back and the real story of Suryas transformation begins. However,there is more action than story. The action is triggered by the revenge motif.

Jeet takes the entire responsibility of the film almost solely on his muscled and worked-out shoulders,with able support from Firdaus,who plays his honest-to-death older brother Bose,a police officer in Binpur,where Section Shankar Bharat Kaul runs a mafia with a corrupt DGP Biplab Chatterjee lending a willing and helpful hand.

Surya hides Boses dead body and cremates it without letting out the secret even to the immediate family. He hides the truth to keep the fight going and to let his brother remain alive in the hearts of the family till his revenge is complete. But the people of Binpur are led to believe that Bose has run off with their money in the bank while in reality it has been poached off by Shankar on behalf of a high-powered top brass,some high-ranking policemen and someone at the ministerial level. Shankars men are reduced to nothing by Surya,Shankar is beaten black-and-blue and then handed over to the new police officer Ashish Vidyarthi who has stepped in to replace the deceased Bose. Jeet delivers a strong,silent and power-packed performance with little dialogue and lots of fights. The comic scenes with Srabanti do not go with his character.

Srabonti is spontaneous,pretty and graceful on her scooty as she drives through the roads of Binpur or parries with Surya. Beyond that,she hardly gets a chance to show her acting skills. Her scenes in the bathtub covered with rose petals are jarring. Bharat Kaul as Section Shankar is okay in a comeback role but has no shades to the character. The family scenes border on melodrama. Firdaus screen makeover as Bose comes off with élan matched by a convincing performance. Biplab Chatterjee is controlled as the corrupt DGP while Ashish Vidyarthi as the new ACP does justice to a very brief cameo thanks to his lines in Bengali dubbed by someone else.

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Indradeep Dasguptas musical score strikes an original note with the Mon banjara number but is predictable in the other songs including the too loud title-track. Rabi Ranjan Mitras editing is uneven,smooth at places and jerky at other times. The cinematography is very good in the action scenes but flat in the romantic and comic scenes. The blood,gore and violence blend into the story.

The humour is horrific. Ravi Kinagi has cooked up one more box office dish that will make his the producers,distributors,exhibitors and audience happy. You must imagine away in absurd scenes like a corpse suddenly sitting up in the morgue while the bank manager is being bashed up. There is a horrendous statue of Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose where Surya brings his brothers dead body. The parallels drawn with his brothers name,Bose are not in good taste.

Verdict:

Three stars 8211; for Jeet,for Kinagi and for Judo Ramu,whose action scenes make the film a worthy watch.