Director: A.R. Murugadoss
Starcast: Sonakshi Sinha, Konkona Sen Sharma and Anurag Kashyap
Ratings: 3.5 stars
After Films like ‘Ghajini’ and ‘Holiday’ Filmmaker A.R. Murugadoss has once again given a ‘different’ kind of a film to Bollywood movie ‘Akira’. Bollywood is ready to experience a full-fledged action film relying only solely on one woman’s shoulder this week. Akira stars Sonakshi Sinha, Konkona Sen Sharma and Anurag Kashyap in pivotal roles. The movie has been adapted from Mouna Guru (2011) Tamil movie. The script is more or less similar to the original film, but we can say that Murugadoss has tried to make things innovative and bring some uniqueness to it. The promos have been showcasing Akira as an out-and-out action film. The film sees Sonakshi as Akira Sharma, a girl who comes to Mumbai from Jodhpur, where she gets into a tiff with the goons of a college, in which she enrolls. You will see the sexy Sonakshi in a never-seen-before avatar. Her role is different and damn powerful. She has made her character look real in reel life. She has seriously packed some hard punches. She was not that glamorous but she was like any other normal girl and we loved her performance.
In between biopics, some rom-com films, period dramas kind of film – ‘Akira’ has broken all the stereotypical norms and that’s what makes it different from other masaledaar Hindi movies.The story revolves around a girl whose name is Akira Sharma. Akira was born and raised in a small town like Jodhpur. She lived with her parents and her father (Atul Kulkarni) always strengthened her (mentally and physically) right from her childhood. He stood by her and taught her the basic principles as a girl she needs to take care of. The young school going Akira (Mishiekka Arora) once witnessed an acid attack scene and when police questioned who saw the crime; she was brave enough to point out the culprit. And it was her father who stood by her during such times and never asked her to back off. But the young Akira did not know she invited trouble. Later when the accused was released, he attacked the young Akira with a knife and since then her life changed.
Akira’s father got her trained in self defence techniques with the help of local professionals. And after some days, while Akira was returning from school she witnessed the same eve teasers trying to attack some girls but this time her father motivated her to protect them with the self defence techniques that she learnt. Young Akira bravely faced them but came a situation where in order to save her from the acid attack, it accidently falls on the attacker. Due to this young Akira was sent to juvenile for a period of three years. The situation of trying to attack the two men without anybody’s help looked unnatural but the message was clear that every girl should walk bravely and also learn self defence techniques. She belongs to the north Indian and feels very difficult to adjust in the society where she lives. She used to be a short-tempered girl and always find herself in trouble. Being a fighter, she loves violence. In fact, this problem leads her behind the bars.
Young Akira completes her jail term and schooling. She tries to forget everything that happened in the past and decides to live peacefully in Jodhpur with her mother. But with one phone call from her brother who lives in Mumbai, she didn’t know how her life was about to change. Though she didn’t agree to go to the metropolitan city but somehow her brother manages to convince takes his sister and mother there. The grown up Akira (Sonakshi Sinha) led life in a simple way. She was enrolled to college and she decides to stay in a hostel. Life in hostel is known to many. There will be some who would want to make your life a mess and such one girl comes in Akira’s life too – Nikki (Teena Singh). Nikki the sexy spoilt girl notices Akira but never knew how strong she was. Nikki had the impression that she could rule over Akira the same way she ruled over her college faculty members and other students.
The opening scene of the film was quite intense. It was a pitch dark scene, police van heading towards a jungle and what you see – two guys and Akira who was handcuffed, a rugged avatar. On her face there was some sort of fear but there was too much of aggression. This entire serious scenario is happening in the background and comes in ACP Rane (Anurag Kashyap). The man who played a badass ACP was a complete surprise package. You’ll be simply amazed with his every dialogue, every action.You really want to see him more in the film and he successfully manages to drive everyone crazy (in a good way) till the end. He did a marvellous job as ACP Rane. He is a badass police official, he does not fear to smoke while driving the police van and neither fears to file a case on the head of an innocent. ACP Rane is a man who does not carry regular bottle of water in his van but a bottle of vodka. Within minutes he successfully converts a murder scene into a suicide case or an accident. And these things are something that is usually heard happening even in reality and director A.R. Murugadoss has clearly executed it.
But in the middle of thousands of culprits, there will always be one honest officer who will serve the nation in the right and not the crooked way and it was SP Rabiya (Konkana Sen Sharma). The beauty’s role was limited but it has been highly impactful. She has never disappointed us in the past and neither today. Minimal makeup, typical lady officer but what a way of investigating a complicated case. She was simply natural. She is pregnant and yet manages to work with that big baby bump. Seeing her all ACP Rane could think of the word was ‘Mother India’. And with that we can get a clue how SP Rabiya image was in the crime branch department. ACP Rane and SP Rabiya are handling the same case but the lady has been told a different story only because ACP Rane wants to escape from it. But mind you, he is not at all a fearful man.
There is something normal also happening in ACP Rane’s life and that is an extra-marital affair but it is with a sex worker called Maya (Raai Laxmi). Raai Lakshmi will make a cameo appearance in the movie. ACP Rane did a crime, he witnessed an accident but that landed up in a murder and that too with his hands. All this has happened in broad daylight and this particular incident is now known to Maya. The real game of police and plight of an innocent begins there. Life tests everyone but Akira sadly didn’t know there will come a time where even she would be tested and so badly that she alone will have to face this corrupt world. The rest forms the crux of the story.How life can become completely miserable is something one can get to see in this film so much that the person is forced to land up in an asylum. How much ever you assume, you won’t be able to guess the plot of this film. The unexpected happens with every scene and that’s what ‘Akira’ makes a different film. It also has good fine music. Some of the songs are the chartbusters. There is a total of 4 songs in this movie. The first song “Rajj Rajj Ke” was launched in three versions, “Purza”, “Kehkasha Tu Meri” and “Baadal”. This A.R. Murugadoss directed film is a different kind of a watch. The performance of every actor in this film was impressive and ‘Akira’ is a hard-hitting one. There is a reason behind every ‘action’ in this film. A R Murugadoss’ action-packed women-centric film ‘Akira’ is truly impressive and Must Watch Film this weekend for everyone.
