I was more than a little surprised and relieved to find out that they could make a pretty good film in Bollywood in 1999. Thank heavens I hadn't watched the downloaded ' JAAN' before ordering INTERNATIONAL KHILADI from Amazon that same night because it would of unduly prejudiced me against this one and that would of been a shame because to me this one is pretty good. It's not as glitzy as his more modern ones and is sometimes silly and overloaded with B_movie female wrestlers, but it has that certain something that makes me want to watch it again later. Warning this does have a lot of implied violence scenes and definitely not for the little ones. They wouldn't understand most of the content and the rest would scare them.
PLOT.....OPENS TO JAMES BOND STYLE CRIME LORDS SITTING AROUND TABLE VOTING THE NEXT DON FOR THE INTERNATIONAL UNDERWORLD. They are about to announce Akshay when the other Desi Big Boss who deals in scurvy pimping and child prostitution stands up and starts thanking them for the vote. He is told he is wrong and to sit down. You can guess how that went over, like an evil guy lead balloon. So that's you're opening with the other guy vowing revenge against Akshay because he wont tolerate that guy trafficking in humans. Next scenes you have cop cars showing up and finding a dead cop in a temple and a bruised and battered naked girl tied hands and feet in Akshays house and blood on the wall where her brother was killed. The story cuts to a court scene with twinkle showing bruises and swearing she was raped by Akshay and her brother was tortured and killed there at Akshays house and oh yeah she loved him even more than her brother.... THAT'S WHEN YOU REALIZE THE MOVIE STARTS IN THE MIDDLE and you are in flash backs to the front. She is a reporter and her brother was a cop. She's pestering Aki all the time for an interview and she keeps finding inventive ways onto the grounds of his mansion, drain pipes etc and because he had stated if she got in alive he would give her an interview. She's sitting outside in the rain now and she's just wearing him down... He's beginning to like her moxie. All of this is done very quickly ,this movie does not drag though it does have some over the top scenes a couple of times.
This is still Bollywood so there ARE some songs and dance numbers but they are pretty good though not subtitled which i hate . Still it's fun to watch the Kumar's together before they were even dating. Their chemistry is evident to all with eyes. Lots of action adventure and a quick little visit to the american movies via stolen scenes from SPEED AND SPEED 2. Not a bad idea for the time period. For all you purist out there try to remember there is no such thing as a NEW unwritten scene . The director just put his own twist on them. So let's twist away. Here are the reasons I liked this film and you might too.
Reason one : The dramatic lay out is interesting with a bit of a who done it plot line throughout the movie. I usually hate a movie that does the start at the middle and go backwards thing as it is very disorienting but they do it in such a way in a court dissertation that is very dramatic and it ropes you in and you QUICKLY go forward to current date from there . It must of not been too long because I can get very impatient FAST.
Reason two why I like it: This one is character driven for both Akshay Kumar and Twinkle Khanna, and she got to act in this one. She has plenty of lines and fun character things to do to keep you in like with her and johnny Lever to get into and out of trouble with as her cameraman/comic sidekick. I can't stand a give up and die character and this one is lively and even swears revenge and goes after it even if she's proven wrong in a dramatic revelation. (though some of us girls saw that one coming). Keep your eyes open, this one has a lot of visual representation of how the other characters think something happened. In other words you think you are watching what really happened but you might be watching someones perception of what they thought happened.
Reason three: Same goes for Akshay's character , he has some good lines and they make him a somewhat sympathetic character for the point of the story line. More like Sarkar. If their is such a thing as a good guy criminal, than this one would be it. He does the entire spectrum of perceived evil guy with questionable flashbacks delineating his character ; all the way to wayward innocent who will do anything for his love because he believes something is his responsibility. So hold on and don't give up all is not as it seems. This is Bollywood. You get your happy ending but you are darn sure going to have to work for it. WHEW.
REASON FOUR : The bad guy is more a James Bond evil guy than a PURE cartoon which makes for some over the top scenes that are bearable and comic evil instead of freak show like in "Jaan" . Watch out for the WWF version of female evil body guards with killer thighs. Definitely stolen from james bond. LOL. Have fun with this one I know I did and as always judge for yourself. This one is made on demand by Amazon and is in excellent shape with a very sexy pic of Akshay on the front cover. (this perplexes me because all their other made on demands sucked big time)
