Fox Star Studios’ A Gentleman (UA) is an action thriller.
Gaurav (Sidharth Malhotra) lives in Miami and works in a big company. He has just recently bought a lovely house as he wants to settle down in life by marrying girlfriend Kavya (Jacqueline Fernandez) and having several children. But Kavya, though fond of him, doesn’t find him marriage material as he is too safe and not at all adventurous.
Rishi (Sidharth Malhotra) lives in Bombay and works for the National Security Council’s (NSC) Unit X. Colonel (Sunil Shetty) is in charge of Unit X and he misuses his position to amass wealth for himself in the form of kickbacks and through other illegal means. He uses Rishi, Yaqub (Darshan Kumar) and several other youngsters who work for him, to further his personal gains rather than to work for the country. Rishi is tired of working in a dangerous job and wants to call it quits as he wants to settle down in life with a wife and children. However, Colonel won’t allow Rishi to quit so easily. He gives him one last task – to get the hard disc of a computer which one Gaurav Kapoor (Kunal Sharma) from Miami is to deliver to defence secretary Mishra (Chittranjan Tripathy). The hard disc contains incriminating evidence against Colonel and hence he wants it anyhow.
Rishi obliges and manages to get hold of the hard disc but the disc gets damaged when Yaqub shoots at Rishi with a view to kill him as per Colonel’s orders. Rishi doesn’t die but disappears with the damaged hard disc.
As the drama progresses, the lives of Gaurav and Rishi intersect at one point. Colonel and Yaqub are still hot on the trail of Rishi. Do they trace him? Does Rishi share the information on the hard disc with Colonel or Yaqub or anyone else?
The story, written by Raj, DK and Sita Menon (with additional story by Suman Kumar and Siraj Kalla) is not new but it has several twists and turns. However, the narrative style adopted by director duo Raj-DK is very different and class-appealing. In fact, the narration in the first half, because of its unusual nature, would be understood mainly by the class audience only, due to reasons not being revealed here. In that sense, Raj and DK’s screenplay is also very restricted in its appeal. Both, the story and the screenplay deteriorate after interval and although the second half would be comprehensible to all the viewers, it is so boring and long-drawn that it would test the audience’s patience. In fact, the second half would be found to be boring even by the section of the audience which would quite appreciate the first half because of the unusual narrative style.
While the light moments in the pre-interval portion are entertaining, they are few and far between in the second half. Although it is a thriller, there are no breathtaking scenes or sequences in the drama. The excitement of Rishi’s heroism is missing almost completely. Sumit Batheja’s dialogues are good at places.
Sidharth Malhotra looks very good and acts well as both, Gaurav and Rishi. He has danced gracefully. Jacqueline Fernandez suits her character (of Kavya), looks glamorous and performs cutely. Darshan Kumar is effective as Yaqub. Sunil Shetty is alright in the role of Colonel. Hussain Dalal is endearing as Gaurav’s friend, Dikshit. Amit Mistry is entertaining as Jignesh. Chittranjan Tripathy leaves a fine mark as defence secretary Mishra. Rajit Kapur and Supriya Pilgaonkar have their moments as Kavya’s parents. Others, including Kunal Sharma (as Gaurav Kapoor) are adequate.
Raj and DK’s direction is stylised but their narration has sectional appeal only. They are unable to keep the viewers completely engrossed after interval and that’s a big letdown. Music (Sachin-Jigar) is good. The ‘Bandook meri Laila’ and ‘Disco’ songs are well-tuned but the first-named song is hardly there in the film. ‘Laagi na chhute’ is melodious. Song picturisations (by Bosco-Caesar and Aadil Sheikh) are eye-filling. Sachin-Jigar’s background music is fairly nice. Roman Jakobi’s cinematography is wonderful. The foreign locations are beautiful. Action scenes and stunts (by Cyril Raffaelli and Parvez Shaikh) are exciting. George Aguilar is the stunts consultant. Aparna Sud’s production designing is of a high order. Aarif Sheikh’s editing is quite sharp.
On the whole, A Gentleman has a first half which has appeal for just one section of the audience, and a second half which is very dull and boring. It will, therefore, fail miserably at the ticket windows and will end up entailing heavy losses to the concerned people.