A drug-mafia infested Goa plus menacing mobsters plus a little girl who goes missing plus a muscled man on a mission is equal to ‘Rocky Handsome’. What all of it basically comes down to is this: a sculpted John Abraham donning a black singlet–pajamas–combat cap, walking slo-mo down corridors, beating the c—p out of sundry bad guys. Or slashing holes into ‘em. Same difference. That is the sole purpose of this film.
The baddies are a colourful lot. One is called Mantoo, or Muntu. Another has a ponytail and leaps about like a terrible carbon copy of a bad carbon copy. Another is bald-pated and twinkly eyed. These two have a bodyguard who comes from one of those lands in the East where kinetic martial arts are used commonly. I think I heard someone say Thailand, so okay, he’s Thai.
But really who cares about such specifics in a film which is determined to plumb all depths when it comes to grisly violence : from a man with an axe, to goons with knives and guns, and some kind of a vacuum drill, which is used in a most shiver inducing manner right at the start, every conceivable weapon is brought to bear. But before you can shout axe murderer, you ought to know that Abraham’s character is the most violent of them all. Particularly in a climactic scene, in which he makes like a veritable whirlwind, using everything he has, to carve through his opponents.
Of course he has a justification, because he is a Hindi film hero. Which is meant to make up for the absence of a coherent story-line, dreary set pieces, and long stretches of people shooting at each other. The film is based on a well-known Korean flick, and in Korean flicks which topline gore, the leading men are not saddled with back stories to make them look noble. Shruti Haasan shows up for a miniscule walk- on just to shed some good light on the hero, before he walks off into the shadows.
John Abraham’s Rocky Handsome is a double: the screen splits into two, with both Rocky and Handsome come striding towards us, just in case we were confused. He only appears bad, see, he’s actually a good guy with a terrible past. The rest of the space is filled with an eight year old (Diya Chalwad) who’s made to talk like she’s double that, and given a relationship with our hero which is meant to tear you up, but feels faintly creepy. Theres a young woman with a drug habit. Just when you think it couldn’t get any worse, you come upon the gracious Suhasini Mulay trucked out as a sleazy peddler of kids. Everything is all over the place in this Goa over-run by ‘Roosis’, and dark night clubs, and organ traders, and scenes of extreme, hard-core violence.
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