A Flying Jatt Movie Review: Strictly For Kids

When you hear about a superhero film starring a young hero known for his martial art skills, expectations are bound to be sky-high, despite the fact that Bollywood has mostly shied away from the superhero genre as it lacks the technical expertise available to Hollywood filmmakers while making such films.

However, Tiger's latest release A Flying Jatt, which has been directed by Remo D'Souza, ends up coming across as a film made solely for kids, who do not mind a preachy tone with their tales.

Malhotra (Kay Kay Menon), a ruthless business tycoon, wants to capture a piece of land owned by Mrs. Kartar Singh (Amrita Singh), the widow of a Sikh warrior, who has no intentions of selling it to the man responsible for dumping toxic waste in the nearby lake. When Malhotra unleashes his fierce enforcer Raka (Nathan Jones) to do the needful and chop down a 'divine' tree on the property, Singh's son Aman (Tiger Shroff) ends up locking horns with him and in the process, gets blessed with superpowers, while Raka turns into a hideous monster after falling in toxic waste.

On realizing his superpowers, Aman adopts the persona 'Flying Jatt' to help people and romance his ladylove Kirti (Jacqueline Fernandez). However, Malhotra is not one to lie low and Raka has now turned into a super-villain thanks to the toxics in his veins and the stage is set for a battle royale. Who wins the ultimate showdown? Watch the movie to find out…

Tiger still has that slight awkwardness on camera, but because of his boy next door charm, he comes across as lovable and relatable. The lad is sheer magic to watch on the dance floor and in his fight sequences and his underdog character will remind you of Peter Parker. Jacqueline Fernandez, for reasons best known to her, talks in a squeaky voice throughout the film and her fringe haircut and nerdy glasses don't really flatter her much. However, she does look like a million bucks in the Beat Pe Booty song. Kay Kay Menon is one of the most talented actors we have and it is sad to see him play such caricaturish roles when he can do much, much better. Nathan Jones has an immense screen presence, though he sounds funny when he talks in Hindi with an American twang. Amrita Singh has done a decent job, but it isGaurav Pandey as Aman's brother, who comes across as a pleasant surprise. Pandey proves to be a decent actor in a supportive role and we wish to see more of him in the future, especially because of his comic timing.

As for the film itself, it becomes very obvious from the opening credits itself that Remo considered kids to be his target audience for the film. We would have not minded it but for the preachy undertone throughout the film, whether it be about pollution (there is one scene wherein even the antagonist Malhotra delivers a lecture to the audience about how pollution is killing the planet!) or the Sikh culture. At one point, you will be tempted to wonder if Remo was slyly making a funny documentary on pollution under the garb of a superhero flick.

However, this is not to say that the film doesn't have its charms. Some scenes, like the one where Aman's brother and mother try to figure out what superpowers Aman has been blessed with or Aman's bumbling efforts to help people after becoming a superhero, are quite hilarious. The action scenes would have been laudable had they not reminded us of every Hollywood superhero that we have seen on the silver screen, right from Spider Man to Man Of Steel to Flash.

Remo apparently decided to give logic the day off when he was figuring how his protagonist would get superpowers and what kind of superpowers to be given to Aman. However, like mentioned earlier, kids are bound to have a great time watching this fare. The screenplay is quite weak and the dialogues are not so powerful. The special effects are decent enough, though Remo has overdone it with the climactic battle on a space station and what not. The music is not really memorable but for the 'Beat Pe Booty' number.

In conclusion, A Flying Jatt is a decent kiddie fare, even if it is preachy and corny...