It wasn't easy getting a first day first show ticket for Ek Tha Tiger. Welcome to the Salman Khan phenomenon where his every look, every uttered word, every punch delivered has a legion of fans going gaga in most parts of the world. Did you just hear a whistle? Don't fret, there's probably a Salman Khan song going on somewhere.
What adulation, what obsession!
Opening shot: narrow streets of Iraq...barren, desert landscape...shadows everywhere...out of the shadows emerges a familiar silhouette. The hero is here. A tad swollen, a little out of shape, there are bags under those deadpan eyes now, there's a sign that age is here. Salman Khan as Indian RAW agent christened Tiger will be adored by his die-hard fans. But for those of us who look at everything with a discerning eye, there could have been a few other actors who would have fit the bill better.
There we've made our confessions, you may kill us now.
And yet the problems (notice the plurality) with Ek tha Tiger is not Salman Khan. He is the saving grace infact alongwith the sighs-evoking Katrina Kaif.
No the shocker is the story, or the lack of it. Coming from Yashraj productions - they who made us fantasise about running in mustard fields to our soulmate, with our dupattas and our hair somehow trailing artistically behind us - the last thing we expected was a cutting edge, adrenaline stirring thriller. This one is an out and out love story with action scenes thrown in probably to justify Salman Khan and the weak script revolving around taking big names like RAW and ISI. As if thats all it takes to make a decent spy flick!
And there's nothing wrong with romance, umm except for when there hardly is any. Salman and Katrina, for personal reasons or due to sheer bad chemistry, skirt around each other squeamishly making it more of a yawn fest than soul stirring.
RAW agent Tiger is the best of the lot (for reasons not really explained), but he's a loner. On an assignment to Ireland he encounters Zoya (Katrina Kaif). Tiger falls hard for the charms of the gorgeous Zoya before realising that she's actually the enemy, an ISI agent sent there to jeopardise his mission (not very intelligent of him to have not realised it earlier, but anyway).
Now Tiger will have to choose between his country and his love. He makes the obvious choice of course but we still felt bad. And this is when you know its an average romantic fare, if you would much rather see Tiger the fighter and not Tiger the lover.
If Katrina Kaif looked gorgeous before, her current looks would give the old her a complex. Even her acting is devoid of those uncomfortable patches she would encounter in a role now and then. She's buffed up to look like a trained agent, the homework is all there.
Now if only director Kabir Khan had given us a smart script taut enough to be believable. If only the plot, the slickness befitting spies didn't fall in the bracket of those secret seven/famous five children mystery novels. Maybe then we wouldn't have been tsk tsking about ek tha hoax!
All images courtesy: www.ekthatiger.com
This review originally appeared in the 17 August edition of Financial World
