HEROPANTI

UTV Motion Pictures and Nadiad­wala Grandson Entertainment’s Heropanti (UA) is an action love story. Babloo (Tiger Shroff) falls in love with Dimpy (Kriti Sanon) who, as bad luck would have it, is the daughter of Chaudhary (Prakash Raj) who is an authoritarian man. But Babloo doesn’t know who she is as he has never met her. He has seen her and fallen in love with her at first sight. Dimpy’s elder sister, Renu (Sandeepa Dhar) has eloped with Babloo’s friend, Rakesh (Devan­shu Sharma), right on her wedding day. Chaudhary is unwilling to believe that his daughter could have eloped and is hoping against hope that Rakesh has kidnapped her. Acc­ording to custom in the town of Haryana where Chaudhary lives, love marriages are taboo and invite death penalty for the couple.

Assuming that Rakesh’s friends would know where Rakesh had taken away his daughter, Chaudhary has his friends, Jitesh (Jatin Suri) and Karan (Karan Chhabra), picked up. He holds them captive, his men beating them black and blue so that they would spill the beans. As Jitesh and Karan don’t know where Rakesh is, they blurt out the name of Babloo, their friend. And so, Babloo is also brought to Chaudhary and held captive there. There is another young man, Kiki (Raashul Tandon), who has been held captive in a case of mistaken identity.

While Jitesh, Karan and Kiki would rather save their lives even if that meant getting Rakesh and Renu caught by Chaudhary, Babloo wants to shield them as he believes, they’ve done nothing wrong by falling in love.

As the drama progresses, Dimpy realises that Babloo is in love with her. One day, Dimpy confides in her house-help, Shalu (Sugandha Mishra), that she has overheard one of the four friends telling the others that he knows about Renu and Rakesh’s whereabouts. Chaudhary’s brother, Pappi Jaat (K.C. Shankar), learns of this and so, Chaudhary and his brother and other family members force her to identity that friend. Very reluctantly, Dimpy identifies Babloo, the boy who loves her dearly, as the person in the know of things. It is here that Babloo realises that the girl he loves is right here – in the same house as he is being held captive – and is none other than the daughter of the man who wants him to locate his elder daughter.

Chaudhary threatens to kill Babloo’s friends if he wouldn’t tell him of his daughter, Renu’s whereabouts. Left with no option, Babloo tells him that Renu and Rakesh were in Delhi. Chaudhary and his men set out for Delhi and take the four friends with them. Babloo ensures that Dimpy also accompanies them. Chaudhary has fixed Dimpy’s marriage with Rajjo (Vikram Singh) who is also in the entourage to Delhi. Rajjo hates Babloo as he gets a feeling that something’s cooking between Babloo and Dimpy.

Does Babloo lead Chaudhary to his daughter? Or does Chaudhary himself locate her? Does he kill Renu, as per tradition of his Jatland, where love marriages have to end in the killings of the couple?

Back in Jatland, Chaudhary begins preparations for Dimpy’s marriage with Rajjo. But he has a nagging fear that Dimpy, too, might elope with Babloo. His fears increase when Babloo turns up for the wedding alongwith his friends, all of who had been allowed to go back home.

What happens thereafter? Does Chaudhary see Dimpy doing exactly what Renu had done? Or does he solemnise her marriage with Rajjo? Does Babloo elope with Dimpy? Or does he have a change of heart? Does Dimpy also break her father’s heart, like elder sister Renu? Or does she not?

Sanjeev Dutta has penned a story (based on original story and screenplay of Telugu film, Parugu, written by Bhaskar) which has a novel track in that the boy picked up to locate a girl who has eloped, falls in love with that very girl’s younger sister, and reaches a point where he would probably have to elope with her! Dutta’s screenplay starts off on a dull note so that the initial three-quarters of an hour are quite dull and boring. No doubt, the introduction of Babloo in an out-and-out action sequence is outstanding but the drama doesn’t have much to offer till around 15 to 20 minutes before interval because it moves at a slow pace and doesn’t entertain half as much as it should have. However, the pace picks up once Dimpy overhears Babloo and his friends talking about Babloo’s girlfriend, that is she herself. Many of the light moments before that don’t have the desired impact and it is only a couple of them, besides the action scenes, which keep the audience entertained in the first half. However, once the drama begins with Dimpy overhearing Babloo and his friends’ conversation, the pace is fast and the proceedings are engaging, entertaining and engrossing. The interval point is fantastic and promises great drama in the second half.

The good part of the screenplay is that the post-interval portion lives up to the promise made in the interval scene. The budding romance, right under Chaudhary’s nose, is entertaining. In the second half too, the action sequences of Babloo are breathtaking. There is a scene outside the court of the marriage registrar, in which Chaudhary encounters a driver (Sunil Grover) who has eloped with his master’s daughter, which is a major highlight. It will draw a huge round of applause and a lot of laughter from the audience. The action sequence in which Babloo saves Dimpy from a group of hoodlums in Delhi will also evoke a deafening round of applause. A similar round of applause will be seen in the scene in which Babloo, risking his life, reaches Renu and Rakesh before Chaudhary’s men can reach them, and he ensures their escape in a bus. There will once again be a deafening round of applause in the action scene between Babloo and Rajjo in the climax.

Yes, the audience may feel that Chaudhary’s role is too lenghty but that cannot take away from the several highlights of the film. A couple of family emotions in the drama will ensure that ladies and families come in large numbers to watch the film. Sanjeev Dutta’s dialogues are outstanding at places.

Tiger Shroff makes a wonderful debut and will become a darling of the girls. He has chocolate looks, a supremely endearing smile and an extraordinary physique to make the girls go weak in the knees. He acts well, is outstanding in action scenes and stunts and also dances very well. The audience may take a while to get accustomed to his unusual facial features but it is certain that Tiger is here to stay! Kriti Sanon has poise and charisma. She also makes a pretty impressive debut and is confident as ever in front of the camera. Like she emotes well, she also dances gracefully. Prakash Raj is fantastic in whatever he does. He shines as Chaudhary. Jatin Suri and Karan Chhabra lend fair support as Babloo’s friends. Raashul Tandon is cute in the role of Kiki. Sandeepa Dhar has her moments. Devanshu Sharma gets very limited scope. He is alright. Vikram Singh does well as Rajjo. Arun Verma (as Jeeja) makes his presence felt. Parthaa Akerkar lends excellent support as Tenna. K.C. Shankar is effective as Pappi Jaat. Samar Singh (as Bhuppi), Sugandha Mishra (as Shalu) and Prashant Singh (as Sukhi) provi­de decent support. Sunil Grover shines in the single scene he has as the driver who elopes with the girl. He is absolutely superb. Karuna Verma (as Bua), Anuradha Chandan (as Chachi), Howard Joseph Rosemeyer (as the videographer), Shireesh Sharma (as the police commissioner), Kailash Kaushik (as the police officer), Resham Thakkar (as the lady in burqa), Priyamvada Kant (as Jassi), Govind Patak (as the lodge manager), Shivam Rao (as Rakesh’s father), Vishal Dhingra, Mohammed Naiem, Ashish Warang and Gangaram Sahu (all four as members of the Jaat gang), Devendra Dev Singh, Saddam Khan, Sameer Khan and Nadeem Memon (all four as bouncers) provide the desired support.

Sabbir Khan does a fine job as director. He has mixed action and romance effectively and added a dash of emotions, too, to make the drama appealing to all age-groups and all sections of audience. Music is very good, and will grow even more now, after the film’s release. ‘Mere naal’ and ‘Aa raat bhar’ (both composed by Sajid-Wajid and penned by Kausar Munir) are hit numbers. ‘Tere binaa’ (com­posed and penned by Mustafa Zahid and Bilal Saad) is excellent. ‘Tabah’ (tuned by Sajid-Wajid, penned by Kausar Munir) and ‘The pappi song’ (composed by Manj Musik and penned by Raftaar) are also appealing songs. Picturisation of all the songs (by Raju Khan, Ganesh Acharya and Ahmed Khan) is truly eye-filling. Sandeep Shirodkar’s background music is very effective. Hari Vedantam has shot the film beautifully; his camerawork is lovely. Anl Arasu’s action and stunts are extraordinary and a major plus point of the film. Narendra Rahurikar’s sets are grand. Manan Sagar’s editing is sharp.

On the whole, Heropanti is a surefire hit.