• Tejas Nair
    Tejas Nair
    258 reviews
    Top Reviewer
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    While Remo D'souza is known to be a fairly decent choreographer, his filmmaking chops definitely need a revisit as is evident from his latest feature which is less of a superhero action flick and more of a sermon on environment's annihilation by its dwellers.



    Aman (Shroff) and his alcoholic mother Bebe (Singh) live in a Sikh neighborhood surrounded by their own community members. Their for- bearers had been staying at this exact place for hundreds of years, which is one of the reasons why Bebe sends Malhotra (Menon), an unscrupulous businessman, back when he requests her to give up the land (for a hefty price, of course) because he wants to build a bridge through it. One other reason why Bebe is so adamant is that the land also holds an age-old tree which is considered sacred by the whole Sikh community. However, Malhotra has already planned his strategy against Bebe, and enlists Raka (Jones), a mutated mercenary, to teach her and the community a lesson. It is during Raka and Aman's first fight sequence that the sacred tree gifts him some supernatural powers and the rest is what one can easily predict.



    Aman, who is now known as Flying Jatt, has the power of self-healing and decides to pit against Raka and Malhotra especially driven by Bebe's emotional narration of her husband and his gang's story of bravery and valor. Meanwhile, Aman wants to get it on with Kirti (Fernandez), a half-dumb, half-pretty doll, who instead wants to get it on with the Flying Jatt. As one can assume, no one, except Bebe and Aman's close friend and future collateral damage, knows that Aman is the Flying Jatt. The half mask that he wears probably weakens one's eyesight.



    The plot is as thin as the next superhero flick. With a formulaic approach mixed with environmentalism, the narrative takes one on a field trip about the deterioration of nature because led by humans and eventually ends up accusing the audience of vandalism. Towards the end, in between action sequences that take place in space, there is a message that appears from the director about "mother Earth" and how "there's no alternative for her". With that, the film reaches exceptional heights of the definition of oversmart.



    Shroff has never impressed us with his acting skills, but if one is entertained by his parkour skills, this film might be fun. Singh is fine as the aged mother who uses popular Punjabi dialogues to admonish his lazy son and businessmen who come knocking on her door for land. Fernandez is exploited fully because all she does is wear colorful costumes and move a hip and swoon at her beau's superhero skills. Menon's performance is not the best he has done, but special appreciation for whoever selected the batch of stylish fibrous ties he wears.



    Overall, the film tries to make a good point, but ends up muddled due to its use of potboiling elements and awful writing.



    BOTTOM LINE: Remo's A Flying Jatt is only for kids. Wait for TV premiere.



    Can be watched with a typical Indian family? YES

    August 26, 16