Shiva (Akshay Kumar) is a small time conman in love with Priya (Sonakshi Sinha), a pretty girl whom he met at a wedding he wasn’t invited to. Into this picture perfect world enters six year old Neha who inexplicably believes Shiva to be her dad! And if this wasn’t bad enough, Shiva also becomes the object of a series of life threatening attacks by a gang of deadly criminals who seem to know something he doesn’t. While trying desperately to save his life and love, Shiva stumbles upon a deadly secret.  A secret that will take him to a small town in Bihar; a town terrorized by its ruthless MLA and the mafia he controls; a town whose inhabitants’ only hope for redemption is…Shiva!

Coming Soon!

An air of unabashed, if generally harmless, imbecility pervades Rowdy Rathore. With very little substance to play around with, the film spreads itself dangerously thin. But even when it teeters on the brink of snapping point, it hurtles along like an armoured vehicle on four flat tyres. It makes much din but covers little ground.

Let’s hand it to director Prabhu Deva. He throws every trick that he knows in the book into this predictable remix of a Telugu hit – song, dance, crass humour, romance, thunderous action and a fearless supercop out to outsmart a bunch of murderous marauders.

Rowdy Rathore is a shrill action flick designed to help Akshay Kumar return to his hit-making ways. Accept that obvious intent and you might actually end up enjoying certain parts of the film against your own better counsel.

Plot

Rowdy Rathore is the remake of the Telugu film Vikramarkudu.

Shiva (Akshay Kumar), a small-time thief in Mumbai, falls in love with Priya (Sonakshi Sinha), a girl from Patna, who is in Mumbai to attend a marriage. Shiva makes his way into Priya’s heart and she also starts loving him. Shiva tells her the truth about him being a thief and resolves to give up crime forever.

But before that, he decides to swindle one last person for a large sum of money. This leads Shiva to Chinki, a young girl, who thinks that Shiva is her father. Flummoxed by what is happening, but forced to keep Chinki with her [as a police officer (Yashpal Sharma) keeps his eye on him], Shiva slowly starts loving the innocent child. Although he tries keeping Chinki away from Priya’s eyes, the latter finds out about Chinki. Angry and hurt, Priya leaves for Patna.

Shiva is heartbroken. Soon, unknown goons attack him, taking him to be Vikram Rathore, Chinki’s real father. While many unknown persons help Shiva run to safety with Chinki in his arms, he is soon surrounded by the goons. It is then that Vikram Rathore (Akshay Kumar) makes and appearance and saves the day. But he is grievously injured in the fight.

What happens next? Who is Vikram Rathore? Does he survive? Why are the goons attacking Vikram and Chinki? What does Shiva do next? Is he able to win back the love of Priya? The rest of the drama and the climax answer these questions.

Performances

Akshay tries, tries hard, to fit into a genre which is at the moment a formula for success. But the man who has given us some extremely entertaining films in the past, gets lost in the slow pace of the film and the southern sensibilities of the director. Sure, his signature flamboyance is there. Some extremely hilarious scenes, which are Kumar`s patent, are there too, but they are too few and far between.

Sonakshi fails to make any sort of mark in her second outing after a fabulous debut in ‘Dabangg’. Not her fault, considering the story gives her very little scope to do anything other than show her somewhat flabby waist and dance boisterously to the tunes of Sajid-Wajid.

Prabhu Deva fails to take the film anywhere, uses a tried and tested formula which may have worked down south but is sadly extremely annoying and garish when remade in Hindi.

Overall

Riddled with an array of loud, lame and specious contrivances, Rowdy Rathore plays out pretty much like a comic-book fantasy rendered in the form of a live-action film.

From the storehouse of upbeat music, Sajid-Wajid, comes another album in the form of 'Rowdy Rathore'. Having doled out chartbusters for films such as 'Dabangg' and 'Housefull 2', one would expect the musical duo to deliver yet another hit.

But though they have a lot to offer through the 'Rowdy Rathore' soundtrack, it falls short of tall expectations.

The album kicks off with 'Chinta ta ta', crooned by the man with the midas touch, Mika Singh, who has been giving hits after hits. The catchy phrase just lingers onto your mind even though you may not be hooked on to it after hearing it for the first time.

The track is not a runaway hit and it takes time to grow on you.

Next up is 'Chammak Challo Chel Chabel', which marks the comeback of Kumar Sanu. With over 17,000 songs to his credit, Sanu has sung this duet with Shreya Goshal and their melodious blend, surprisingly takes you back to the romance of 1990s. It is an absolute delight to hear Sanu, who has returned to his forte of romantic numbers after six years.

Since the film is christened 'Rowdy' Rathore, it would be unfair to not have a fitting song that justifies the title. 'Aa re Pritam Pyaare' does that and it is said to be the 'rowdiest song of the year'. Custom-made for the voice of Mamta Sharma, your frown at the lyrics quickly metamorphoses into some foot-tapping.

Another song reminiscent of the past is 'Tera ishq bada teekha'. The number also takes you back to the 1990s. A duet by Javed Ali and Shreya Goshal, the song's male vocals eerily remind one of Sonu Nigam. It is just the perfect song for some nostalgia!

Next up on the playlist is is 'Dhadang dhang dhang', sung by Wajid and Shreya Goshal. The beginning of this song is inadvertently similar to the beats of the hit song 'Aaila Re Aaila Re', filmed on Sanjay Dutt and Shilpa Shetty in the film 'Jung'. 'Dhadang...' is a conversational song, but doesn't elicit appreciation. The composition is quite average and lyrics are disappointingly mediocre. A big thumbs down for this one.

It is followed by a lullaby that comes in the form of 'Chandaniya' (Lori Lori) sung by Shreya Goshal. It is the lone soothing number in this over-the-top album. However, the strums of this song have close resemblance to A.R.Rahman's music in 'Roja'. An absolute delight to hear.

Last but not the least is the title track 'Rowdy Mix', which opens with Akshay Kumar creating a statement with 'Jo main bolta hun woh main karta hun, jo main nahin bolta woh main definitely karta hun'. Sarosh Sami is good with the backing vocals but what makes you groove are the beats, which couple well with the rowdy style.

By and large, the album, despite the good songs, leaves a sense of discontentment. Having produced hit albums in the past, Sajid-Wajid definitely could have churned out something better.