Movie Review: 'Holiday' – a soldier is never off duty
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In every subsequent scene, an army man named Virat (Akshay Kumar) purposely withholds information from local authorities. Rather than sharing crucial, and against the clock intel, Virat thinks police are made up of borderline idiots. It is a fixed impression he shares, and candidly imposes on his only friend, who he tags along with whenever he's home off duty. The friend, a sub-inspector played by the likable Summet Raghavan, can do without him; the movie cannot.
In a span of two hours and forty-one minutes, Virat single-handedly devises counter-intelligence action against a sleeper terrorist outfit sent by its leader (Freddy Daruwala) from somewhere in Indian Thar, without building up even mild perspiration. As a testament of his beguiling genius, Virat solves rubic cubes absent-mindedly.
The shortfall in Holiday is acceptable in the name of entertainment. It’s not that the way Holiday’s plot folds over is pointless; it’s just a typical commercial film.
Adapting his own Tamil movie, Murugadoss keeps everything relatively flat and superficial. At some instances, he stuffs-in civilian, rallying morality lessons. Another forced aspect is the fickle romance with a tough, rowdy and self-possessed girl played by Sonakshi Sinha.
Sinha, who appears as a song, dance and comedy filler, reminds one of the old-Bollywood days – a time when heroines were little more than good-looking window dressing.
As a prerequisite, there is some cross-border finger pointing; however, there’s no direct naming of countries and extremist outfits. After all, even if Holiday is about foiling terrorist plots, it is more centered on being a blockbuster – and that idea suits it just fine.
The final word
Don't expect much, and you've got yourself covered.
Released by Reliance Entertainment, "Holiday" is rated U/A. No need to be cautioned; the movie is family friendly entertainment.
Written and Directed by A. R. Murugadoss; Produced by Vipul Amrutlal Shah and Aruna Bhatia; Cinematography by N. Nataraja Subramanian; Edited by Amitabh Shukla; Music by Pritam Chakraborty
Starring: Akshay Kumar, Sonakshi Sinha, Freddy Daruwala, Sumeet Raghavan, Govinda, Zakir Hussain.