REVIEW: ATTACK

Producers- John Abraham, Ajay Kapoor and Dheeraj Wadhavan

Director-Lakshya Raj Anand

Star Cast- John Abraham, Jacqueline Fernandez, Rakul Preet Singh, Prakash Raj, Kiran Kumar, Kiran Kumar, Ratna Pathak Shah and Rajit Kapur

Genre- Thriller

Platform of Release- Theatrical

Rating- **

A Concoction with a wafer thin plot!

Jyothi Venkatesh

After his last release Satyameva Jayate 2, in a desperate bid to bounce back, John Abraham who has shown interesting initiative as a producer, backing films like Vicky Donor, Madras Cafe, Parmanu and Batla House, this time opts to seek the help of Jean-Claude Van Damme’s Universal Soldier franchise that spawned a cult of its own.

Also, equal portions of Bruce Willis from Die Hard, and Gerard Butler from the Olympus — both of which are tense, well-made action films about a single man helping with a high-stakes hostage situation.

With the Parliament under siege, India’s first super hero soldier Arjun Shergill (John Abraham) is tasked to get hold of the terrorists in the nick of time, save the Prime Minister from their clutches and stop a dirty bomb from exploding and destroying Delhi.

The plot is about how Arjun succeeds in his mission. It is also incredible that though he is an officer with irreversible paralysis neck-down, and a love life cut short like in her earlier film Bachchan Pamdey ( with Ayesha (Jacquline Fernandez) that has ended as suddenly as it started, John romps home spick and span.

Subramaniam (Prakash Raj), a high-ranking officer of the Indian Government, recommends his name as the test case for a new artificial-intelligence-led technology that can potentially get him back on his feet and turn him into a super soldier.

Just as he agrees to be the scape goat for a scientist Dr Saba’s (Rakul Preet Singh) experiment, a terrorist crisis erupts at the Parliament.

Arjun rises to the occasion but with the clock ticking away, can he avert total destruction? Your guess is as good as mine

John Abraham plays to the gallery with supremacy which is pleasing to see after a long time, though he fails in the acting department.

He’s not lifting cars, crushing bikes, squeezing people like lemons or shouting out some ‘powerful’ lines, but seems in control of the events and looks in great shape, mentally and physically, playing a soldier.

One cannot completely blame John for having penned the story, which has just a wafer thin plot as his partner in ‘crime’ director and writer Lakshya Raj Anand endorses the slick paced drama.

It is illogical when the super soldier forgets he is stabbed in his leg and walks like it wasn’t a knife but a feather.

While Jacqueline Fernandez has a meatier part and does justice to her role, poor Rakul Preet Singh has been wasted in the film as just a piece of furniture .

I wonder what exactly on earth had prompted Ratna Pathak Shah to agree to play John Abraham’s mother’s role only to be forgotten completely after a point, while Prakash Raj seems more comical as Mr Subramanian than menacing.

Kiran Kumar also disappoints as the chief of the army while Rajit Kapur plays a half-baked role as the Home Minister and is confusing to the core.

To sum up, Attack which threatens that its sequel is all set to come, is a concoction with a wafer thin plot