A few years back, I saw Harman Baweja’s “Love Story 2050” (2008 film), where the protagonist goes into the future to meet his lost girlfriend reincarnated using his uncle’s (an eminent scientist) time machine and gets her back. The future year he enters is 2050. There are flying cars, AI robots, and air bikes which fascinated me as a child. But almost fifteen years later, I see the same level of VFX in “Ganapath: A Hero is Born.”
To sum up Vikas Bahl’s (director) dystopian action drama, it’s just Tiger Shroff showing off his bronzy abs, dancing, flipping, and kicking the odds. The plot is set in an era where the world is shattered post-war, leaving millions of people homeless, leading to poverty. In this world, there is a section of people, “The Richies,” who have created their technologically advanced world, far away from the poor, whom they use forcefully for slavery.
“Guddu” (played by Tiger) is a spoiled rich brat who wakes up with half a dozen girls in the morning. His job is to find the best MMA fighters for his master-cum-mentor John (Ziad Bakri), who has a chip behind his neck which helps him speak without even moving his lips. Their business is to bet on the best fighter and earn money. Eventually, some circumstances make him realize his purpose in life, where he meets “Jassi” (Kriti Sanon), and thus transitions himself into a “Masiha.”
The worst part about this two-hour and sixteen-minute film is that this was just the first part, while the second one is titled as “Ganapath: The Hero will Rise.” The poorly written narrative with underwritten characters is enough reason to understand how bad the film is, but the writer (Vikas Bahl) could have just finished the story in the first part itself, instead of stretching it out. But, Bollywood seems to be in a phase where making a film in two or three parts sounds like a fancy idea and also gives validation to the film franchise. But, in reality, only a few makers succeed in this.
Ganapath has a visual set-up similar to the rough landscape style of KGF. A deserted place with an earthy color palette and some good action sequences with some terrible visual effects and CGI. The flying machines and the drones remind me of some video games. In one scene, Jassi (Kriti) is chased by two weaponized AI machines, which were executed exactly like a biker racing, or a fighter jet game.
The weak storyline, where dialogues are written as “Mai marta nahi, sirf maarta hun,” or, “Main jab darta hun toh bohot maarta hun,” makes the film (available at your nearby theaters) a bad choice for a weekend watch.
