Viacom 18 Motion Pictures, Cape Of Good Films and Ashwin Varde Productions’ Boss is an action-packed film with a good dose of family drama hinging on father-son relationship. Satyakant Shastri (Mithun Chakraborty), a very principled school teacher, has two children, Surya and Shiv. Right from childhood, Surya is hot-headed. He can’t tolerate anybody talking ill about his father or poking fun of his disability (limping). One day, Surya gets into a fight with his school-mate, and Satyakant has to apologise to the school-mate’s father for Surya’s actions. Even after that, Surya beats up the school-mate because of which Satyakant locks up both the kids in a room, asking them to sort out their differences. When he opens the door, Satyakant is horrified to see that Surya has murdered the school-mate. Surya is jailed for three years and he gets into another fight with the deceased’s father once he is out of prison. Driven to his wits’ end, Satyakant throws Surya out of his house and disowns him.
Almost at the same time, Big Boss (Danny Denzogpa) takes Surya under his wings and christens him ‘Boss’. Big Boss has a flourishing transport business and is also a contract killer.
Fifteen years later, Shiv (Shiv Pandit) gets into a legal problem when he tries to save the honour of Ankita (Aditi Rao Hydari) while impersonating a police officer. Ankita’s own eccentric police officer-brother, Ayushman Thakur (Ronit Roy), puts Shiv behind bars and tortures him as Shiv had, while saving Ankita’s honour, beaten minister Vishwas Pradhan’s (Govind Namdeo) son, Vishal (Aakash Dadhade), black and blue. Vishwas Pradhan wants Ayushman to get his sister married to Vishal, and the eccentric Ayushman is more than willing because on the marriage depends his (Ayushman’s) promotion.
Satyakant Shastri finds himself helpless and approaches his own son, Surya (Akshay Kumar), to save Shiv from the police atrocities. Being the principled man he is, Shastri promises to pay his own son, Surya, his fee for saving Shiv and even pays him a token amount. Just before Surya accepts the contract to save Shiv, Big Boss accepts the contract from minister Vishwas Pradhan to kill Shiv, as he (Big Boss) is not aware that Shiv is his protégé’s brother.
Surya is in a fix. On the one hand, he is supposed to kill Shiv, his brother, as Big Boss has taken advance money for the same. On the other, he wants to save his brother from the police brutality. So what does Surya do?
Is Shiv saved or murdered? Does Big Boss see Surya’s point of view? Does Satyakant Shastri forgive his son, Surya?
The film is remade from the Malayalam film, Pokkiri Raja. The story (Farhad-Sajid) is quite oft-repeated but the juxtaposing of action and family drama is intelligent. The father-son relationship is well-etched out and will appeal to the audience, especially the ladies and family audience. The screenplay, also penned by Farhad-Sajid, has interesting twists and turns which keep the audience interest alive. No doubt, there are dull moments in the screenplay but the dullness doesn’t last for too long. Farhad-Sajid have particularly taken care to pen a drama which offers something or the other for all sections of the audience – masses, classes, young, old, men, women. The thread of comedy keeps the atmosphere light throughout and there are many scenes in which the audience would laugh, even guffaw. In particular, the scenes of Boss’ chair made by his goons, the introduction scene of Boss and several other comedy scenes will make the viewers laugh a lot. The emotional scenes in the family drama may not exactly draw tears from the viewer’s eyes but they do touch the heart. The scenes of the father and son sometimes overwhelm the audience with their emotional undercurrent. The revelation of a suspense angle in the pre-climax comes as a shock to the viewer and is one of the major highlights of the film.
This is not to say that there aren’t any drawbacks in the screenplay. There are some shortcomings. For one, the viewer gets the feeling that some scenes are just too convenient. Secondly, the first almost half hour is devoted to Surya’s childhood because of which Akshay Kumar’s (older Surya) entry happens after that. The absence of Akshay Kumar for so long after the film has began would irritate the audience. There is no romantic track of Surya, which is also a minus point. Although the following is not the fault of the screenplay, it is, nevertheless, a sore point: casting Shiv Pandit and Aditi Rao Hydari in the roles of Shiv and Ankita respectively is a minus point because two better-known faces were needed for the roles.
Farhad-Sajid’s dialogues are excellent. If the comic dialogues make the viewer laugh, the emotional ones bring a lump in his throat. It wouldn’t be wrong to say that Farhad-Sajid’s dialogues are one of the mainstays of the film. Surya’s dialogue, ‘ Apna toh kaam paani nikalna hove’, will become popular with the masses and front-benchers.
Akshay Kumar does a wonderful job as Surya alias Boss. He is excellent in light scenes, superb in action scenes, wonderful in dances and very good in emotional ones. He looks very handsome and endears himself quite easily to the audience. Mithun Chakraborty lends the right amount of emotional appeal with an understated performance. Danny Denzongpa is very effective in the role of Big Boss. Ronit Roy excels as police officer Ayushman Thakur. He makes himself extremely detestable, which is the demand of the character he plays. In one word, he is outstanding. Shiv Pandit does quite well but a better-known face in the role of Shiv would’ve been more effective. Aditi Rao Hydari is quite okay; even the character she plays needed a more popular actress. Govind Namdeo leaves a mark with his villainy. Aakash Dabhade is entertaining . Johny Lever evokes laughter with his natural acting in a comic role. Parikshat Sahni lends the required support. Sanjay Mishra is funny enough in a brief role. Hunar Hali is alright as Dimple. Master Rushiraj Pawar is superb in the role of young Surya. Master Shivansh (as kid Shiv) and Master Siddharth Goel (as young Rajan) are effective. Neelu Kohli (as Kaamini), Vibha Chhiber (as Vishwas Pradhan’s wife), Shiva (as Vishwas Pradhan’s PA) and master Sanket Bakshi (as young Rajan’s friend) lend good support. Sonakshi Sinha adds a lot of glamour and star value in two song-dance numbers. Shakti Kapoor, Sudesh Berry and Mukesh Tiwari make their presence felt in special appearances. Prabhudheva’s appearance in a song-dance will be met with a round of applause because his dance is mind-blowing. Other actors do as required. Amitabh Bachchan’s commentary adds weight to the drama.
Anthony D’souza’s direction is truly good. His narrative style caters to all kinds of audience. Music (Meet Bros. Anjjan, Honey Singh, Chirantan Bhatt and P.A. Deepak) is very good. All the songs are appealing and the ones which will stand out are ‘Party all night’, the title track, ‘Hum na tode’ and the father-son song. The remixed version of ‘Har kisi ko nahin milta’ is lovely. Song picturisations are terrific. The choreography of ‘Party all night’, ‘Hum na tode’ and ‘Har kisi ko nahin milta’ (picturised on Akshay Kumar and Sonakshi Sinha) is eye-filling. Lyrics (Kumaar, Sahil Kaushal and Manoj Yadav) are nice. Sandeep Shirodkar’s background music is very appropriate. Laxman R. Uttekar’s cinematography is lovely. Anl Arasu’s action scenes and stunts deserve distinction marks as they would be loved by the masses. Nilesh Wagh’s sets are alright. Rameshwar S. Bhagat’s editing is sharp.
On the whole, Boss is an entertainer but with some big minus points too. It is more for the single-screen cinema audiences. Business in single-screen cinemas and ‘B’ and ‘C’ class centres will be very good while that in multiplexes will be very ordinary. In the final tally, the producers will end up making some profits while most of the distributors would break even or, at best, earn very little by way of commission.
Released on 16-10-’13 at Regal (daily 4 shows, in daily 3 shows from 18-10-’13), Eros (daily 4 shows), New Excelsior (daily 4 shows) and other cinemas of Bombay by Viacom 18 Motion Pictures. Publicity: very good. Opening: very good (also because of Bakr Eid holiday on 16th), fairly big drop was noticed on 17th. …….Also released all over. Opening was excellent in single-screen cinemas and fairly nice in multiplexes.