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Star Cast: John Abraham, Jackie Shroff, Mouni Roy, Sikander Kher and a whole lot of uncalled pop-patriotism!
Director: Robbie Grewal
What’s Good: The fact that it’s informative and that’s it! You could go through a well-written history book for the same though
What’s Bad: It takes the audience for granted & tests the patience at regular intervals! In order to narrate a brave tale, the makers forget how to properly execute it
Loo Break: Not that you’ll need it per se but the boring narration will force you to take many!
Watch or Not?: If you’re going in with the hopes of getting a film like Uri: The Surgical Strike or Parmanu, just don’t!
User Rating:
The narration starts with explaining the birth of Bangladesh and how the situations were there during the Indo-Pak war of 1971. After a few very poorly showcased about the information, we see an old man reciting a Shayari in a hall. It just needed a camera focus on his face to recognize the guy is John Abraham (Romeo here). Romeo works in a bank in Delhi, from where he’s abducted by the chief of Research and Analysis Wing (R&AW) – Srikanth Rai (Jackie Shroff).
Romeo turns to Akbar Malik as he’s sent to Pakistan for an undercover mission. He’s asked to send intel about a certain Isaq Afridi (Anil George) and the people around him. While he mixes up the people over there, Srikanth with the use of Romeo/Akbar’s information dodges a lethal attack back in India. It’s all about how Romeo manages to stay afloat despite getting into the bad books of Pakistan police.
Romeo Akbar Walter Movie Review: Script Analysis
This movie is like Indo-Pak matches; everyone knows who will win in the end. But at least, in Cricket, they try to make it interesting till the last ball. Rome Akbar Walter’s story is all talk no show! Scripts like these work when they are articulately written but here it’s all chaotic. The story just doesn’t hold your attention for a long span of time. There are thrills but very limited and not enough to create the kind of impact this story needed.
A weak mother-angle and weaker love-angle are present just to add some more minutes to the already extended run time. It starts and ends well, but there’s nothing sustainable in between – one of those movies which are made just for some well-thought moments. All bad things apart, I loved the usage of sky colours throughout the film. There’s a scene in which John’s character is explained of how India needs him, and there’s a back shot of him facing a tricoloured mixture of sky & land.
Romeo Akbar Walter Movie Review: Star Performance
John Abraham delivers a fine performance. As usual, he excels in the physically loud sequences but still needs to work on the emotional ones. With his last couple of films (Satyameva Jayate and Parmanu), he has reached to the masses and if he needs to hold that grip, he’ll have to choose scripts very wisely from now.
Jackie Shroff doesn’t fit the character of Srikanth Rai. He looks dapper in every of his scene but that dialect was a bit too much for a Chief of R&AW. Mouni Roy is brutally wasted! Her character has no scope to grow whatsoever and she stays uninteresting for whatever screentime she has. Sikander Kher does well as Colonel Khan, he looks his character and talks like one. But, he’s yet again victimized for getting a half-baked character.
Romeo Akbar Walter Movie Review: Direction, Music
This movie needed a different writer! Robbie’s direction is debatable but because the story is so flat, you just don’t get to appreciate anything else. Tapan Tushar Basu’s camera covers the rustic 70s gracefully but the dark colour tone of the film pinched your eyesight at times.
Hanif Shaikh’s background score picks up certain scenes but goes unregistered at many places. It’s not a new thing in Bollywood to get a very loud BGM with a subject like this. Songs are nothing but an unfair waste of your time. Not a single song clicks and there a lot of them.
Romeo Akbar Walter Movie Review: The Last Word
All said and done, Romeo Akbar Walter could have been a lot better than what it is now. The paper-thin plot, pretending to be a lot intelligent than what it is backed by a very lousy narration. Don’t fall for the patriotic trap!
Two stars!
Romeo Akbar Walter Movie Trailer
Romeo Akbar Walter Movie releases on 05th April 2019.
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