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Thugs of Hindostan Movie Review - Pirates of Freedom

November 08, 2018
Set in 1795, Thugs of Hindostan is about a group of Thugs who want to free India from the British East India Company. It features some A-list actors who try hard to save this falling piece of grandeur filmmaking.



Cast - Aamir Khan, Amitabh Bachchan, Fatima Sana Shaikh, Katrina Kaif, Lloyd Owen, Mohammed Zeeshan Ayyub, Ronit Roy

Directed By - Vijay Krishna Acharya

Genre - Action, Adventure, Drama

The film takes us to the year 1795 where the king of Raunakpur, Mirza Sikander Baig (Ronit Roy) gets killed by a ruthless British East India Company officer, John Clive (Lloyd Owen). Her daughter in a slow-motion sequence gets saved by Khudabaksh Azad (Amitabh Bachchan) who carries her away on the horse. Cut to 11 years later and we are introduced to a cunning con-man Firangi Mallah (Aamir Khan) who should not be trusted as "Dhoka" (Deception) is in his nature. He rides on a donkey and behaves like Captain Jack Sparrow from the Pirates of the Caribbean. The girl saved by Khudabaksh grows up to be a beautiful and brave archer Zafira (Fatima Sana Shaikh) who I thought would never speak in the entire film. Thankfully, she does have some lines to deliver instead of just taking down enemies with her arrows. 

From the above information, we can safely deduce that Thugs of Hindostan is about revenge and double-crossings which are mixed with the fight for freedom. There are other sub-plots too which overall turn this film into a giant mess. It tries to tell so many different stories and connects them to the big picture which is the fight for freedom here. One can see its investment towards the technical department which creates CGI heavy battles on ships choreographed beautifully. The same cannot be said for the filming as they are shot using those old cheap tricks involving cuts and close-ups. Some of them are covered up, but you do notice them during some sequences. The CGI is good in parts but becomes noticeable during other scenes like the one involving a head-on between two ships where its video game-like graphics further reminded me of Assassin's Creed IV: Black Flag. The black flag is replaced by a red one here.

As expected from the trailers, the women have less to do, and the men do the heavy-lifting. This would not have been an issue, but this movie to some extent owes the plot to Zafira who sadly does not have much to do. She comes and performs some stunning stunts and kills before going in the background. 

What starts well gets lost in the mid-way, probably because it gets consumed by its beauty and the arrogance of performing well at the box office because of its two main leads. In his ambitious desires, the film shows every trick up its sleeve during the first few hours and then sits back recurring those things throughout the remaining runtime. What happens is that it gets slow literally and all the double-crossings and twists it offers become predictable after some time. 

I bet this all idea of double-crossings came from the success of Dhoom 3 where Aamir provided twists to the tale. Director Vijay Krishna Acharya further expands this deceitfulness while retaining Aamir to do the necessary. Its excessive use is what leads to the films doom as your guess starts getting right and you enter Firangi's mind predicting his every move at every turn of the story. The songs are forgetful and further painfully drag the movie. 

One cannot exactly blame Aamir to take up this project. I mean think about it, he gets a chance to play the character who resembles Jack Sparrow. An entertaining, goofy womaniser who cracks you up with his antics. But the problem is that we love Sparrow and Depp's treatment to the character. Aamir tries to add his charm to the role and successfully manages to an extent, but after a time, it got tiresome. Amitabh with his tough body and expressions did a fine job in performing some stylish executions. Fatima has more to do than Katrina, but as mentioned before, their parts in the film were minimal and were treated more like a plot device used to achieve a goal by our main protagonists. Lloyd Owen was not so menacing and didn't give a threatening vibe from him. He was serviceable in his part. Mohammed Zeeshan Ayyub has some funny scenes and lines to deliver which at least put a smile on your face.

Thugs of Hindostan is bland, ridiculous and its 164 minutes of uninspiring direction and screenplay further add fuel to the fire. Its comparable to the character of Firangi as it lures with its looks and visuals and then deceives you with a cliched plot which bores you to death. While the girl, in the beginning, gets rescued, you wonder whether when will you be saved from this torment as you shout "Azaadi" (Freedom), just like the Thugs in the movie. Not the ships but it's the audience's money that it loots in the end. 

Rating - 1.5/5 

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