We're bringing you a film that we were really looking forward to and that hasn't disappointed us one bit. Here comes Ek Tha Tiger, one of those stories that has absolutely everything: action, humor, romance, suspense, music and now we can say that it's very worthy of the audience, with protagonists that we love - Salman Khan and the beautiful Katrina Kaif.
Aditya Chopra and Kabir Khan introduce us to the world of wonder by taking up a variation of the magic formula of "Once upon a time". Here, the magical, poured in large draughts, once again regilds the coat of arms of the Yash Raj stable. Yash Raj Films or the dream factory of Hindi cinema, at the service of the great spectacle, regains its colors with this enchanting entertainment.
Camouflaged under the cover of a spy film, this pure masala mixes effectively and accurately, action and comedy in favor of a feline romance. Grrrr! Farewell Richard Hannay, farewell James Bond, RIP Ethan Hunt, bye bye Jason Bourne and vidai Agent Vinod! With a swipe of his claw, Tiger razes the competition by erasing the cinephile brotherhood of 007 from our memories. Ek Tha Tiger is a roaring fairy tale where the damsel in distress fights back with fists and thighs.
The eternal Indo-Pakistani conflict serves as a backdrop to a plot narrated in the form of a war between secret services. During a surveillance mission, the spy Tiger is stung in the heart. He finds himself flirting with his target's housekeeper. What follows is a narrative plot in the pure Indian tradition. Reversals of situations, rapid adventures. Welcome to the modus operandi of masala!
The story, as always, is not very original, but it is very fresh. It deals with the fights between the RAW and the ISI, the spy agencies of India and Pakistan respectively. The protagonist is the toughest, most ruthless and strongest spy in India, who is given all the most dangerous missions and is always on the lookout.
Everything is going well until he has to carry out a mission with less action, based only on watching a teacher, to see if he is passing information to the enemy side. He tries to get close to the teacher through his assistant, a beautiful Indian dance student who cleans his house, but he gets so close that he ends up falling in love with her.
He continues with the mission and with the flirting until he realizes that the information was being passed by her, who was a Pakistani spy (not a spoiler, the truth is that he saw it coming from miles away). At first they act like enemies, but they end up understanding each other and trying to live together.
To convince you to watch this movie, you only have to watch the beginning of it. A brutal action scene with no pauses, full of fights, shootings and chases through the streets of Pakistan.
Here you already have an idea of what you are going to see, but it is not entirely true either. Alas, in the next few minutes (and more), the movie becomes a real joke, with this tough guy dressed as a fool and trying to flirt with the doctor and his assistant, with some really funny gags (like when, after singing, the colleague asks him if they were singing and dancing in the street), some dancing and singing interspersed in the movie (this could not be missing), and a great return to the action scenes, first with flashbacks and later complicating the plot and adding some drama to some moments that were becoming too romantic.
After New York (2009), Kabir Khan leaves drama to tackle a light film, a highly exhilarating entertainment and a notch above his previous achievements. Of course, the first part of Ek Tha Tiger can leave one perplexed. The stereotypes that stick to the skin of commercial Hindi cinema follow one another.
With an assumed naivety, a dubious exoticism, understudies that are not necessarily in keeping, Canadairs pouring hectolitres of honey on a budding romance… All this can be off-putting at first glance, but no, in the end the film stuns.
This beginning thus plunges us into a phase of discovery and expectation while the second part takes off remarkably. A frenetic pace, where hilarious repartee, insane fight scenes, unexpected car chases are wonderfully and voluptuously intertwined, provides a communicative euphoria annihilating any guilty pleasure. It is with panache that the film unfolds into a visual and humorous feast.
The charm of Ek Tha Tiger works by asserting itself as a summer distraction, an emotionally driven cathartic film. The thrills will refresh your neurons. Carried away by a whirlwind of mind-blowing stunts, this film will unleash the most tenacious zygomatic muscles with its contagious madness.
Some basic things to praise in this production:
The music (apart from the songs) that plays throughout the film, always the same melody in different modes and moments, like in the good films of the past.
The variety of locations in the story (as well as a James Bond) passing through Pakistan, India, England, Turkey and Cuba, filming the scenes in the country in question and with an excellent setting in each one.
The director's mix of styles (although it has been done before in Bollywood), going from comedy to thriller or pure action in a moment; that shows us that, although it is one of Kabir Khan 's first films, he has known how to get the most out of it, not being out of place at any time and making the most of the large budget he had to make it.
The cockiness of Salman Khan, who we already loved in Dabangg and who here plays a very similar role, the coolest, strongest, most flirtatious, the best singer and the most of everything there is in India.
The natural beauty of Katrina Kaif, who is beautiful for no reason, and her special chemistry with Salman, with whom she had already collaborated in Bodyguard or Yuvvraaj.
These types of films that we like so much are already so successful (although here in Spain it is hard for us to watch them), we promise to look for more similar ones to recommend them to you.
In short, a film that has everything you could expect from Bollywood: beautiful girls, tough guys, good fights, lots of music and dancing, humor so silly that you can't help but laugh... perfect to spend more than two hours of your life enjoying.
