Gold Movie Review - The Commercial Biopic
Gold follows the story of the players who made India proud by winning the first Olympic gold medal in 1948. Reema Kagti makes it a commercial ride which would be enjoyed by the masses, but in its approach, the film loses its heart.
Cast - Akshay Kumar, Mouni Roy, Kunal Kapoor, Amit Sadh, Bhawsheel Singh Sahni
Directed By - Reema Kagti
Genre - Biopic, Drama
The movie starts with a hockey match that takes place in Berlin during the year 1936. Tapan (Akshay Kumar) is the Hockey Team Manager who leads the team with Samrat (Kunal Kapoor) as the captain. During the national anthem that follows after there win, Tapan and Samrat see a dream of there flag being hosted at the Olympics along with there national anthem being played in the background. The film then cuts to the events that follow during the World War II and India's partition which proves to be bad news for Tapan as the Olympics keep on getting cancelled. But after many difficulties, he gets the chance to lead a team of Indian hockey players to the Olympics and fulfil his and the nation's dream of winning a gold medal for India.
Full disclosure that I was not so excited or hyped about this film after watching the trailers. My reasons are simple, any Akshay Kumar films that have been coming recently seem to follow a pattern that has become predictable for me. Of course, I commend him for choosing good subjects and contents, but content alone does not guarantee a film's success. It should also be appropriately executed. The problem with Kumar's films is that they seem to get lost in his aura and stardom which results in an end product that does not let the story speak and instead lets Kumar do the talking. The films get overly dramatized, and he gets a chance to mouth dialogues that converts into whistles in the theatres.
Gold being directed by Reema Kagti, the person behind movies like Honeymoon Travels Pvt. Ltd. (2007) and Talaash (2012), also falls under the same cliches. Make no mistake; this is not a biopic depicting the turbulent times and difficulties the players faced in the past and how they overcame such significant problems to play in the Olympics finally. This is a commercial film and a sports drama which follows the same routine these biopics tend to take all over again. My problems with this movie are somewhat similar to Shaad Ali's film Soorma. Both the movies already had a great source material at hand, but the filmmakers didn't find it enough and added a lot of melodrama and unwanted side plots to it.
Given the fact that Gold has a big star like Akshay Kumar in it, the film starts lapping around him as he mouths lines that are meant to evoke the inner patriotism within us. The movie makes sure that we get a constant reminder about why we are in the theatre watching this film by these lines - they ruled us for 200 years, now its payback time. Not only Tapan, but even his wife Monobina (Mouni Roy) during a scene in which she makes food for the players also speaks the same lines. But mostly it's Tapan who speaks these lines while holding the national flag in his hand. I am not telling that it is wrong or anything, its just that I don't need a constant reminder of the characters motives.
Speaking of reminders, this film does a lot of spoon feeding to the audience. The voiceover in the background by Akshay Kumar comes now and then describing the current state of events in the film. Do they think the audience members are blind or do they consider us so dumb that we would not be able to decode the "complicated" scenes going on screen? This comes as a major disappointment as it comes from the director who made Talaash, a film I immensely enjoyed and admired. God knows what happened here.
Before it comes off as trashing, let me talk about the positives of this film. I enjoyed the performances of the cast and thought everyone was admirable. No doubt Akshay Kumar is a fantastic actor but its just that his recent coming films do not tap his full potential in terms of acting. He plays it safe which was watchable initially but has now become dated. His Bengali accent was improper and noticeable during his scenes with Mouni Roy who being a Bengali was fluent in the language. Mouni Roy who became famous with the TV show Naagin was also excellent concerning the performance in the film. She didn't have much to do on screen but is undoubtedly a fine actress with great acting chops. Amit Sadh was also amazing, and the same can be said for Kunal Kapoor. Bhawsheel Singh Sahni is the surprise package here who wins your heart with his honest performance. He is something to look forward to in future films.
Cinematography by Alvaro Gutierrez and the set designs of this film are fabulous and aesthetic to look at. The editing by Anand Subaya could have been more edgy and crispier which would have made this film snappier and quick.
I am sure that this film will be a hit due to the presence of Kumar and people will enjoy seeing foreigners shouting "India" on screen coming out with a smile on there face. It's just that don't get manipulated by the patriotism as in the end; it is a commercial film made for making money and nothing else.
Rating - 2.5/5
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Cast - Akshay Kumar, Mouni Roy, Kunal Kapoor, Amit Sadh, Bhawsheel Singh Sahni
Directed By - Reema Kagti
Genre - Biopic, Drama
The movie starts with a hockey match that takes place in Berlin during the year 1936. Tapan (Akshay Kumar) is the Hockey Team Manager who leads the team with Samrat (Kunal Kapoor) as the captain. During the national anthem that follows after there win, Tapan and Samrat see a dream of there flag being hosted at the Olympics along with there national anthem being played in the background. The film then cuts to the events that follow during the World War II and India's partition which proves to be bad news for Tapan as the Olympics keep on getting cancelled. But after many difficulties, he gets the chance to lead a team of Indian hockey players to the Olympics and fulfil his and the nation's dream of winning a gold medal for India.
Full disclosure that I was not so excited or hyped about this film after watching the trailers. My reasons are simple, any Akshay Kumar films that have been coming recently seem to follow a pattern that has become predictable for me. Of course, I commend him for choosing good subjects and contents, but content alone does not guarantee a film's success. It should also be appropriately executed. The problem with Kumar's films is that they seem to get lost in his aura and stardom which results in an end product that does not let the story speak and instead lets Kumar do the talking. The films get overly dramatized, and he gets a chance to mouth dialogues that converts into whistles in the theatres.
Gold being directed by Reema Kagti, the person behind movies like Honeymoon Travels Pvt. Ltd. (2007) and Talaash (2012), also falls under the same cliches. Make no mistake; this is not a biopic depicting the turbulent times and difficulties the players faced in the past and how they overcame such significant problems to play in the Olympics finally. This is a commercial film and a sports drama which follows the same routine these biopics tend to take all over again. My problems with this movie are somewhat similar to Shaad Ali's film Soorma. Both the movies already had a great source material at hand, but the filmmakers didn't find it enough and added a lot of melodrama and unwanted side plots to it.
Given the fact that Gold has a big star like Akshay Kumar in it, the film starts lapping around him as he mouths lines that are meant to evoke the inner patriotism within us. The movie makes sure that we get a constant reminder about why we are in the theatre watching this film by these lines - they ruled us for 200 years, now its payback time. Not only Tapan, but even his wife Monobina (Mouni Roy) during a scene in which she makes food for the players also speaks the same lines. But mostly it's Tapan who speaks these lines while holding the national flag in his hand. I am not telling that it is wrong or anything, its just that I don't need a constant reminder of the characters motives.
Speaking of reminders, this film does a lot of spoon feeding to the audience. The voiceover in the background by Akshay Kumar comes now and then describing the current state of events in the film. Do they think the audience members are blind or do they consider us so dumb that we would not be able to decode the "complicated" scenes going on screen? This comes as a major disappointment as it comes from the director who made Talaash, a film I immensely enjoyed and admired. God knows what happened here.
Before it comes off as trashing, let me talk about the positives of this film. I enjoyed the performances of the cast and thought everyone was admirable. No doubt Akshay Kumar is a fantastic actor but its just that his recent coming films do not tap his full potential in terms of acting. He plays it safe which was watchable initially but has now become dated. His Bengali accent was improper and noticeable during his scenes with Mouni Roy who being a Bengali was fluent in the language. Mouni Roy who became famous with the TV show Naagin was also excellent concerning the performance in the film. She didn't have much to do on screen but is undoubtedly a fine actress with great acting chops. Amit Sadh was also amazing, and the same can be said for Kunal Kapoor. Bhawsheel Singh Sahni is the surprise package here who wins your heart with his honest performance. He is something to look forward to in future films.
Cinematography by Alvaro Gutierrez and the set designs of this film are fabulous and aesthetic to look at. The editing by Anand Subaya could have been more edgy and crispier which would have made this film snappier and quick.
I am sure that this film will be a hit due to the presence of Kumar and people will enjoy seeing foreigners shouting "India" on screen coming out with a smile on there face. It's just that don't get manipulated by the patriotism as in the end; it is a commercial film made for making money and nothing else.
Rating - 2.5/5
Follow Me On:
Twitter - https://twitter.com/vikas_yadav98
Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/vikasy199/
Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/vimovies123/
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