Published On : Sat, Aug 26th, 2017

Movie Review: A Gentleman

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A gentleman
A Gentleman

Directors: Ran and DK
Cast: Sidharth Malhotra, Jacqueline Fernandez, Darshan Kumar, Suniel Shetty

Three years after delivering the Saif Ali Khan-starrer dud, Happy Ending, directors Krishna DK and Raj Nidimoru – now called just Raj and DK – are back with a another bid at the box office. Their latest venture – A Gentleman – starring Jacqueline Fernandez and Sidharth Malhotra which hit the theatres on Friday, is an exciting ride.

A Gentleman traces the story of two Sidharths – one is a traditionally good guy with a high-paid job, a grand house in Miami and a family but one who cannot even claim his own credit in an IT office. The other one is what our heroine (Jacqueline) digs for – adventurous, risky and street-smart. The mixing up of the two identities creates confusion, danger and forms the crux of the film.

The film starts on a rather understated, but flashy note – foreign locations, characters flaunting designer clothes and fake accents, cliched characterisation and very predictable sequences.

However, A Gentleman picks up the pace and the juxtaposition of the two Sidharths makes it an engaging to watch, if not entirely gripping.

The quintessential Raj and DK touch – quirky dialogues, funny scenes, smart one-liners on ‘modernism’ and a practical side to the filmy narrative – is sprayed all over in just the perfect quantity.

‘Sundar and susheel’ Gaurav being friend-zoned by Kavya (Jacqueline) offers a great dose of laughter while the ‘risky Rishi’ and his sweet dream (he wants to quit his life of guns and deaths and make a home with a loving wife, a dog and a few kids) shows us the other side of this ‘grey’ character. These are two characters that are poles apart but yearn for the same thing.

Both Sidharth and Jacqueline are quite fun to watch. That they mostly have to be flashy, cheeky and very, very Bollywood in their execution also helps.

Supriya Pilgaonkar and Rajit Kapoor have small roles as Kavya’s parents but they manage to leave a remarkable impression. Darshan Kumar, who plays the second fiddle to Suniel Shetty’s character delivers another strong performance. Suniel, however, turns out to be disappointing after a stylish entry into the film. He fails to portray the I-only-mean-business guy who is supposed to be brutal. Darshan clearly is the better villain here.

A Gentleman is not a flawless film, it is full of cliches and typecasts the characters – be it casting black men as the foot soldiers of the villain, their language or even the ringtone of his phone. Even the climax action sequence conforms to decades old cliche – the hero’s anger is at its worst when poked about the heroine. The songs of A Gentleman also disrupt the narrative and do not take the story any further.

But Raj and DK have managed to narrate the plain and full-of-cliches story in their own quirky style and their dialogues and the screenplay make it fun to watch.

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