Khiladi 786

Cast: Akshay Kumar, Himesh Reshammiya, Manoj Joshi, Asin, Mithun Chakraborty, Rajesh Khattar, Raj Babbar, Mukesh Rishi, Claudia Ciesla, Sanjay Mishra, Johny Lever, Gurpreet Guggi, Dinesh Lamba, Bharti Singh, Mushtaq Khan

Director: Ashish R Mohan

Writer/Music Director: Himesh Reshammiya

Singer/s: Himesh Reshammiya, Shreya Ghoshal, Mika Singh, Honey Singh, Hamsika Iyer, Alam Gir Khan, Aman Trikha, Shriram, Vineet Singh, Yashraj Kapil, Rajdeep Chatterjee, Javed Ali, Chandrakala Singh, Harshdeep Kaur

Producer/s: Twinkle Khanna, Sunil Lulla, Himesh Reshammiya

Plot: Born to an owner of a marriage bureau Champak Lal, Mansukh has been a complete failure ever since he has grown up and tried to help his father in their family business. All the alliances he had tried to get done have resulted in separation even before the marriage took place.

To prove his worth to his father, he takes up an unusual challenge of getting an u
nderworld don TT bhai’s spoilt brat sister Indu getting married to a cop called Bahattar Singh aka Khiladi 786 in Punjab and to add more to his problems he convinces even TT bhai to pretend as a cop but little did the over enthusiast know that Bahattar Singh, his father Sattar Singh and his uncle Ikhattar Singh were not cops but a family of conmen. The story takes a shape as the two hardcore families of two different states pretend to be policemen in front of each other and the beans from each side can be spilled anytime which can be life threatening for Mansukh.

What follows is a roller-coaster ride filled with music, romance, comedy and power packed action!

Rating: 2.5/5 stars (Two-and-a-half stars)

Star cast: Akshay Kumar, Asin, Himesh Reshammiya, Sanjay Mishra, Mithun Chakraborty, Raj Babbar, Mukesh Rishi.

What’s Good: The comedy & funny dialogues; the action; some performances.

What’s Bad: The stale story; Himesh & Akshay’s hamming; the forced songs.

Loo break: None.

Watch or Not?: For Akshay Kumar’s action and the humour, this one’s worth a one-time watch.

User Rating:

Khiladi 786 is a mish-mash of Akshay Kumar’s Welcome and Ajay Devgn’s Son Of Sardaar. Even if it doesn’t take the best of both worlds, you’ll end up having enough laughs in the theatre, though it won’t be memorable any time after that.

A wedding planner’s son, Mansukh (Himesh Reshammiya) ends up ruining most of the marriages his father works on. After getting thrown out of his house, he winds up with Jeevanlal (Sanjay Mishra) and swears to conduct at least one marriage successfully to get back at his father. And who should land up at his door other than the tempestuous Indu (Asin) who’s driven away another prospective groom. Asin’s brother, the dreaded don Tatya Tukaram Tendulkar (Mithun Chakraborty) assigns Mansukh and Jeevanlal with the job of finding a suitable groom for his sister.

Though in the deep end, Mansukh has just the guy for the job. He goes to Punjab to meet Bahattar Singh (Akshay Kumar). Now Bahattar is actually from a family of bodybuilders and ruffians, who dress like cops, dispense justice like them and even dress in uniforms like them. Bahattar can’t wait to get married but considering their reputation, it’s quite impossible to find a bride for him in the country. In fact, his father Sattar Singh (Raj Babbar) married a Canadian, his uncle Unhattar Singh (Mukesh Rishi) got hitched with a lady from China while his grandmother is from Africa. With so much international diversity in the household, Bahattar is only too glad to hide his family’s real business so that he can finally get a wife.

Meanwhile, the Tendulkars put up a show of being cops so that the Singhs feel that the bride comes from a respectable family when the latter come to Mumbai for a ‘chat-mangni-pat-byah’.

Will the Tendulkars and Singhs find out the truth about each other? What happens then? Why does Indu keep sabotaging her own marriage proposals? Does Bahattar manage to win her heart? Many laughs and punches later, the answers come together.

Khiladi 786 Review: Script Analysis

Strike One for Himesh Reshammiya with his entirely unoriginal story. This would probably be the first movie in which an actor has acted in the remake of his own movie. The entire plot is lifted from Welcome, with just a few cosmetic changes. A criminal family wants to get their child married to a respectable one. Hilarity ensues.

Thankfully, the saving grace is Kunal Bakshi’s screenplay and Bunty Rathore’s dialogues. The lines are funny and will keep a grin on your face throughout the film. For eg: Inspector Bhalerao Kambli (Johny Lever) threatens to call “Kejriwal” when he’s shoved in a room while trying to blow Tatya’s cover. When he reappears in the climax, the writers bring out the Kambli-Tendulkar fight very smartly. These clever gags really make the movie enjoyable with the gags that keep playing along.

What’s irritating is that some of the gags – like the jail ones – are recycled too often. Some of those forwarded SMS/email jokes don’t help either.

Khiladi 786 Review: Star Performances

Akshay Kumar doesn’t have much to act as Bahattar Singh and it’s mostly the usual ham act. But he’s bearable and does satisfactorily well (Fun fact: he wears spiky golden mojris). Asin looks hot and tries hard to play the gangster’s sister. She reprises her role as the runaway bride after Ready. Strike Two for Himesh for his attempt at acting (again) as the flabbergasted wedding planner. Most of his act is saved by the very talented Sanjay Mishra, who plays Jeevanlal. Mithun Chakraborty carries of the role of Tatya very well but his moustache looks too fake! Mukesh Tiwari is first-rate as a cop.

Khiladi 786 Review: Direction, Music & Editing

After playing Assistant Director to so many of Rohit Shetty’s films, director Ashish Mohan finally gets his moment, and he holds it up well. He reflects many of his mentor’s traits with the over-the-top action scenes and flipping cars. Strike Three and Himesh is not out. As music director, Himesh gets the tone perfect with the rustic drums and trendy disco songs. While some of the songs do nothing more than lengthen the film, the music is just right. And Himesh can laugh at himself too; you see Akshay holds his nose and lip-sync in a particularly nasal O Baawariya!

Attar Singh’s cinematography fills the screen with every imaginable colour. Thankfully, it suits the whole ‘Punjabi’ vibe and doesn’t leave you with spasms. Jai Singh’s action is very good. Though Akshay beating people faster than their eyes can fathom it is a bit of a stretch, the body toll is exciting. Also here action equals Akshay beating the pulp out of people with the earth shuddering and walls crumbling. There’s no concept of anyone being able to even lay a hand on the hero. Ashish Gaikar’s editing is alright.

Khiladi 786 Review: The Last Word

If you want nothing more than an enjoyable action-comedy without much sense, give Khiladi 786 a watch.

Khiladi 786 Trailer

Khiladi 786 released on 7th December, 2012.

Share with us your experience of watching Khiladi 786.