MUMBAI: Boss reminds you of a brand of hand mixer of the same name. It is a blend of similar films from 1970s and 80s with two brothers, a principled father and a misunderstanding where brothers are parted. Traditionally, one takes the illegal route while the other is the father’s blue-eyed boy. The brothers come together to prove blood is thicker than water a decade and a half later. How is the film contemporary? In those days, a mother slapped her elder one and threw him out, here it is done by the father; the hero does not have a childhood sweetheart pining and waiting for him to return; the music is louder and lyrics make no sense most of the time and mainly, the fight is over the villain’s sister.

Producer: Ashwin Warde Director: Anthony D’Souza. Cast: Akshay Kumar, Mithun Chakraborty, Danny Denzongpa, Ronit Roy, Shiv Pandit, Aditi Rao Hydari, Johny Lever, Parikshit Sahni, Govind Namdeo, Sanjay Mishra

The film starts in an old-fashioned way, trying to set the pace of the film with action by various artistes for the first 40 minutes before it introduces Akshay Kumar with yet another action sequence, a greedy one because it refuses to end! The only action hero of yore who does not have a fight scene is Mithun Chakraborty.

Akshay Kumar, who has been banished from his home in Banaras by his father, Mithun, ends up in Haryana in nick of time to save the local don and Big Boss, Danny. Seeing honesty mixed with anger in the young lad, Danny takes him under his wing to make him his heir, and names him Boss. Big Boss’s front is as the owner of a transport fleet but otherwise he is a supari contractor. On the other side is a policeman, Ronit Roy, who wants to be the commissioner of police and to achieve this, he handles the dirty deals department for the wannabe CM, Govind Namdeo.

It is time to work on a family story and to absolve Akshay of his childhood act which led to his ouster from home. Akshay’s kid brother, Shiv Pandit, is romancing Aditi Rao Hydari, the sister of Ronit. Ronit wants her to marry Namdeo’s son in exchange for the Commissioner’s post. Namdeo wants an outsider to kill Shiv so fingers don’t point at him. The contract to kill him is given to Akshay. At the same time, Mithun gives a contract to save Shiv to Akshay. The brothers combine to foil all the evil plans of the villains through expected twists and turns with no pretence of logic or justification. It is supposed to be old-fashioned entertainment after all!

A remake of the 2010 Malayalam movie, Pokkiri Raja, the film maintains its south flavour in treatment and even the choice of fighters and junior artistes. It also sticks to south style of action and stunts which is too much in vogue with Hindi films lately. Action and light banter of Akshay is what the film counts on to entertain the viewers. Direction is fair. The photography is good. Some one-liners are funny, some flat. Music is a lot of noisy stuff which makes following the lyrics tough. Akshay is his usual self in the roles he plays on regular basis now; a carefree character with unbeatable energy and fighting power. Shiv gets scope to showcase his action prowess and also his romantic side. Aditi Rao Hydari is okay. Mithun seems miscast in an Alokenath kind of role. Parikshit Sahani’s presence in the film is unexplained since he just has to hang around Mithun. It is nice to see Danny on screen after a long time. Ronit makes a perfect villain against Akshay. Johny Lever and Sanjay Mishra are okay with their comic input. Govind Namdeo is the usual villain like his many such roles before.