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Producer: Keshu & AB Corp
Director: Rajkumar Santoshi
Cast: Amitabh Bachchan, Akshay Kumar, Bhumika Chawla & (introducing) Aryeman
Music: Ram Sampat
Lyrics: Sameer
Cinematography: Ashok Mehta
Plain Ordinary & Disappointing!
Rajkumar Santoshi is a name that is synonymous with good cinema. Ghayal, Damini, Ghatak, Pukar, Andaz Apna Apna, The Legend of Bhagat Singh and Khakee, all his previous ventures, have had a stamp of his class. Box office success may have eluded some of his films but the quality of films has been unquestionable. So this venture that brings him and Amitabh Bachchan together after Khakee, carries high expectations.
Family - Ties of Blood tells the story of two families, that of Viren Sahai (Amitabh Bachchan) and Shekhar Bhatia (Akshay Kumar) - totally different from each other. The collision of the two forms the crux of the story.
First family is headed by Viren, a dreaded don who operates from Bangkok. His family based in Mumbai comprises of his wife (Shernaz Patel), son (Sushant Singh), daughter, daughter-in-law and grandson. His family is based in Mumbai away from him as his wife does not approve of his nefarious activities.
Second family, on the other hand, is a middle class family of Shekhar who lives with his parents (Anjan Shrivastav & Bharti Achrekar), doctor wife (Bhumika Chawla) and his brother Aryan (Aryeman)
The story takes a turn when Shekhar gets killed by Viren and his family gets completely shattered. Frustrated by the law and order machinery being unable to do anything about it, Aryan, along with a bunch of friends, kidnaps Virens's family. He wants to get to Viren through his family and avenge his family's loss.
The basic plot looks quite up Santoshi's alley as revenge is a theme he handles with great effectiveness (Ghayal still remains one of the better revenge films in Hindi cinema). But Family has a hangover of a lot of his earlier films. If the initial romantic track of Akshay seems to be an extension of what he did in Khakee, the entire plot of elder brother dying and the whole family falling to pieces reminds one of Ghayal. But the punch of Ghayal is missing. Aryan with a bunch of friends who hang out at IMAX, kidnapping the family of Viren Sahai with effortless ease looks very implausible. At the interval point, the battle lines are set and we expect a power packed second half.
The second half starts well with some well executed action sequences. But then the writers lose track of the protagonist and the focus completely shifts to Viren Sahai. In fact, the last one hour hardly has any scenes of Aryan (the protagonist till then). Post the death of Viren's wife, the film goes on endlessly with Viren shooting down everyone in sight at the end which includes all the police officers in a police station.
Music by Ram Sampath is very weak. Dialogues, that have always been a mainstay of all Santoshi's earlier flicks, are lack lustre.
Amitabh Bachchan does dominate the film with his performance but fails to infuse life in the film. Akshay Kumar is average. Bhumika Chawla is impressive in her scene with Amitabh Bachchan. Aryeman tries hard but is too weak compared to the stalwarts he shares screen space with.
On the whole, Family is a big disappointment coming from a great director and a great actor. One would be better off waiting for Rajkumar Santoshi's next film than watch his Family.
-- Ashutosh Mordekar
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