Ganapath Movie Review
3.0/5
We learn through a voiceover narrated by Dalapati (Amitabh Bachchan) that Ganapath is set in a future that has been ravaged by war. Most of the people in the world are dead, with a meagre population surviving in a barren landscape. The rich pool in their resources and build a futuristic megacity called Silver City where you can get anything you want for a price. The degenerate denizens of this portion of the world live a hedonistic life. Their favourite pastime is betting on MMA matches organised by cruel Dalini. The poor, meanwhile, get poorer and get by with what they have. They’re divided into factions where might is right. Years ago, Dalapati started organising matches on the lines of The Fight Club, giving the frustrated citizens a chance to lessen their angst by fighting against each other. However, the rich got news of the sport and turned it into a betting cartel, with the best fighters from the poor quarter becoming pawns of the betting syndicate. Guddu (Tiger Shroff) is the right hand man of John English. While he isn’t a fighter himself, he has the uncanny ability to predict winners and works as a spotter for John. circumstances lead him in the bad books of his boss, who orders him to be buried alive. Ganapath is saved through divine grace and another henchman of John English, Kaizaad (Jameel Khan) asks him to hide amongst the poor quarter and seek out Shiva (Rahman). He meets Jassi (Kriti Sanon) there and falls in love with her. He starts learning how to fight, and might just become the messiah, Ganapath, as prophesied by Dalapati…Director Vikas Bahl, who till now has been known for films like Queen (2014), Super 30 (2019) and Goodbye (2022) has taken a leap of faith and has landed in the arena of actioners with this one. He seems to be inspired from such films as Mad Max, the video game Tekken, Bruce Lee’s Enter The Dragon, The Blood Of Heroes – you get the drift. Basically, it’s a progression fantasy where the hero gets to tackle increasingly difficult obstacles before emerging as the champion. It’s a subgenre which has been quite popular in the West but has found few takers in India. So it’s brave of Vikas Bahl to go so out of his league and attempt something like this. The soul of such films is the fight choreography, and the director has got that right. The fights look like MMA cage fights on steroids. They are fast, furious and plenty of blood gets spilled to satisfy rabid action buffs. And in Tiger Shroff, he gets the perfect candidate to play the hero. Tiger has got the physique and the moves of a MMA fighter and kicks and punches away to glory. The fights seem real enough, though you know the hero is going to win in the end anyway, despite being mauled repeatedly. And it’s not just Tiger who gets to fight. Kriti Sanon shows a lot of spunk fighting with the nunchucks. Her action scenes are on point as well. Malayalam actor Rahman makes his Hindi debut here, playing the blind sensei Shiva and his screen presence works in the film’s favour.
Inspired perhaps by Star Wars, Vikas Bahl has tried to infuse a heavy dose of emotions, mysticism and spirituality in the film. The mixture of coming-of-age tropes and miracles makes it a mixed bag which has something for everybody. The doubts which assailed Luke Skywalker are absent here, however. The film is set up in two parts, with the sequel set to release in future. So perhaps it’ll see newer conflicts besieging our hero.
Watch the film for its slick action sequences and for Tiger Shroff’s abs.
