Critics rating: 1.5 Stars

Cast: Sooraj Pancholi, Athiya Shetty, Tigmanshu Dhulia, Aditya Pancholi

Direction: Nikhil Advani

Produced: Salman Khan, Subhash Ghai 

Written: Nikhil Advani, Umesh Bist

Genre: Romance

Duration: 133 Mins

For a much-reviled film in its reviews, Hero is not insufferable. It is not a good film, much less a worthy remake or tribute to the enjoyable original. The comparisons may not be invited, but they are inevitable.

The 1983 hero Jackie/Jai Kishen was an unshaven, flute-playing goon with grey motivations and love triggering the change in his conscience. Our newest hero, Sooraj (Sooraj Pancholi) is a sculpted work of art. Said art does not translate very well into his performance but because the stoic demeanour is a part of the brief, he is passable as a tough guy. He also has his name tattooed between his shoulder blades like the back of a football jersey.

Meenakshi Seshadri’s likeable, naive Radha Mathur, the daughter of IGP Shrikanth Mathur (Shammi Kappor in the original/Tigmanshu Dhulia), morphs into a ditzy beauty (Athiya Shetty) who duck-faces in her bathroom selfies and pouts sulkily if her demands for hipper policemen to protect her and a five-star treatment in a mountain cabin are not met. She spends much of the film’s running time talking shrilly to the hero or the villains who rough him up.

She ogles at Sooraj, soberly or drunk, completely ignoring the unusualness of her circumstances and the possibility that she has been kidnapped by him as a blackmailing tactic so that his uncle Pasha (Aditya Pancholi) can be let off the hook. The inevitable love story follows, as do the unavoidable obstacles beginning from the IGP father to a rival gangster-lover Rannvijay Shekhawat (Vivaan Bhatena), whom Radha eventually insults by calling him a “dork-faced muppet”.

The story has been tailored to suit a contemporary audience, but that does not mean that the telling has improved. A lot of awkward scenes thrown in make you question the wisdom of remaking the film. In this film, there is a scene where Shrikant confronts Pasha on the whereabouts of his kidnapped daughter. The latter refuses to comply.

Shrikant then says that if parents can give their lives for their children, he can take one for his daughter. The punch-line is whispered right into Pasha’s ear, which seemed just a little laced with a homo-erotic undercurrent. This warning is followed by pouring a bottle of water on Pasha’s head; a deeply unnecessary visual punctuation. Another scene Shrikant’s wife begs him to bring their daughter home is handled with better grace and subtlety.

There is also the court room scene where Radha gives a favourable testimony for Sooraj and the prosecuting lawyer declares that the, “Witness turned into hostile.”

Something is also not quite right with the film’s timeline. Radha remains in captivity for a few weeks (or months at the most) before being found. Her sister-in-law (Anita Hassanandani) was set to deliver her baby the day she was kidnapped. Fast forward to two years later and the daughter looks five years old! Pasha’s hair also greys in that short span of time, all while the hero-heroine are still the adolescents in love.

Songs from the original movie which are gems are referenced here, like a villain mangling “ding dong” with a more sinister intent. The “pyaar karnewaale” number is used only as a quote at the end of a Romeo-Juliet-esque stage performance by the lead (which is basically an insidious threat to the parents to let them be together or else).

There is a lot that needed fixing in the film, especially the second half, before this could pass muster. However, with little going in its favour, your best bet is to watch or rewatch the old film. It has a greater redemptive arc and a more interesting set of characters in all its 80s glory.