Goodhachari No 1 Review

Action movies are good for health. They keep the adrenaline pumping into those muscles - when you back flip; when you do a 360-spin and tangle your intestines; when you bend over and dislodge your vertebrae. Action movies are even better for health when there's a stunt man to do all that for you. But they're the best for you when you watch them on the screen - no adrenaline, no sweat, no snakebites. Oh yeah, no brains too. Just work your eyes or close them, your call.

Here's how the plot for this one goes (since of course, you care). Arjun is our very own secret agent. Unlike James Bond, nothing of Arjun is shooting off except his gun. He's on the trail of people trying hard to destabilize our nation. Not our politicians, silly - the terrorists. Politicians are way too dangerous for a trained secret agent.

Meanwhile, the police nab Ali, the brain behind the Parliament attacks. His sidekicks then plan to abduct the IG's daughter (Simran) as a hostage. Now certain moments in life equal pure magic. As the kidnapping scene of Simran came, I saw Simran look right at me. My body froze. I had her for a brief shining moment and then lost her. As her gagged, blood-ridden body was being taken away forcibly, I never felt so close to any woman. I would have had her too, if not for that meddling Arjun.

Simran flees from the terrorists and stumbles upon Arjun. She lets the whole story out and Arjun joins that IG's home as a cook and takes it from there, eventually busting up the network. Somewhere along the line, there's a communal, moral message in the whole thing. When Arjun's moving from city to city tracking down the terrorists, he's really saying that people of all cultures, be they Indian, Pakistani, Hindu, Muslim, Christian etc., are all the same. The same hopes and the same dreams. And if he didn't have to blow them away with direct headshots, they could all have been good friends!

The movie has some genuine stunts. Arjun's a part of RAW, so looks like he's taken some lessons from Goldberg - pretty neat. Another surprise is the decent cinematography and music, which these days is like finding a genuine 500-rupee note. The Tamil original Ottran perhaps has better lyrics. And definitely better lip-syncing.

All you diehard action fans can probably catch this one. You have read the script off the net, read all the gossip, read the previews and reviews, seen all interviews with the cast. So now watch it and say it was so-so, as it had no surprises.