‘Sooryavanshi’ movie review: Akshay Kumar, Rohit Shetty deliver an action-packed spectacle

It is the perfect mass entertainer that the Hindi film industry desperately needed as it opens up after the pandemic

Movie Cast: Akshay Kumar, Katrina Kaif, Ajay Devgn, Ranveer Singh, Jackie Shroff, Jaaved Jaaferi, Gulshan Grovers and others

Director: Rohit Shetty

Duration: 2 hours and 25 mins

Where to watch?: Released on Theatres

Rating: 3.5 stars

‘Sooryavanshi’ story: Set against the backdrop of the 1993 Mumbai blasts, Akshay Kumar as DCP Veer Sooryavanshi, chief of the Anti-Terrorism Squad, is on a mission to save the city from another terrorist attack.

Sooryavanshi review:

An absolute entertainer, with a few hiccups in between, ‘Sooryavanshi’ is definitely the best film in the Rohit Shetty cop universe that began in 2011 with Ajay Devgn as a no-nonsense cop in ‘Singham’, continued with its sequel three years later and presented Ranveer Singh in an all-new avatar with ‘Simmba’ in 2018. 

Reasons you should watch the film:

With its fast paced narrative from the first scene itself, ‘Sooryavanshi’ will keep you engaged and entertained throughout its entire duration. Rohit Shetty gives no time to the audience to breathe as he introduces several characters within the first fifteen minutes and sets the mood of the film. The pace drops in the sequences where Veer Sooryavanshi’s married life is falling apart with Ria, played by Katrina Kaif in a brief but dependable role. The film is a treat for the Akshay-Katrina fans as the beloved reel couple reunites on screen after more than a decade. Though Tip Tip Barsa Paani's remake, filmed on them, is simply unnecessary. The original, from Akshay's own 1994 film Mohra, is a classic that should have been left untouched.

The performances from the entire supporting cast are convincing. Jaaved Jaaferi as Kabir Shroff, Joint Commissioner in the Mumbai Police, provides able support to the titular character. Jackie Shroff looks menacing as the main antagonist Omar Hafeez while Abhimanyu Singh and Mrunal Jain are seen as his two sons, Riaaz and Raza. Kumud Mishra as Bilal Ahmed is believable as one of the two masterminds behind the 1993 bombings. Akshay Kumar’s sidekicks add the humour quotient required in the film. 

Sooryavanshi shines in the last thirty minutes with Ajay Devgn and Ranveer Singh making grand entries as Singham and Simmba respectively. The repartee between the three leads is smartly written with punchlines alluding to their other fictional characters and real lives. Ranveer is hilarious with his one-liners. Ajay even hints at the next film in the series, Singham 3 that will take forward the story from where Sooryavanshi has ended. 

Reasons you can skip the film: 

‘Sooryavanshi’ is a typical Rohit Shetty film. The writing is convenient and replete with so many coincidences that makes the film unreal at places. Yujus Sajawal’s screenplay should have been tighter in the second half. Sikander Kher’s character seems to have been added just for the action sequence in Bangkok and could have been avoided altogether. While the pre-climax sequence highlighting the religious unity in the nation works in a mainstream film like this, ‘Sooryavanshi’ gets too preachy at times, diluting the realism in the story.

Shetty has written the story himself, unlike his previous films in the cop franchise which were either remakes or inspired from the non-Hindi regional films. It is predictable and fails to surprise the audience with no twists. The film’s soundtrack with one original song and three remakes is completely forgettable. Those who might want to wait for a groundbreaking experience on the big screen can avoid the film and wait for its streaming release. 

End Verdict:

Initially slated to release in March 2020, 'Sooryavanshi' has finally hit the theatres after 19 months and it is totally worth the wait.