Wanted: A Story

After a long time, there is excitement at the movies. Salman Khan shows his badass side in 'Wanted' and the audience, especially in the single screens, can't get enough of this gun totting, brawny, no nonsense hitman.

Prabhudeva serves a typical South style flick with some stylised action tadka sprinkled with punch lines. Sample some classic gems that will go down in Bollywood's pulpy fiction history: Ek baar maine commitment kar di toh phir toh main apne aap ki bhi nahin sunta or the classic Tu ladki ke peeche bhagega ladki paise ki peeche bhaagegi, tu paise ke peeche bhagega ladki tere peeche bhagegi. Phew.Taalis and ceeties, people?

With 'Wanted', Salman establishes himself as the last action hero standing. And we surely need someone out there to kick some serious butt. Enough of those comedy mumbo jumbo or pansy loverboys. The success of 'Ghajini' and 'Kaminey' and now 'Wanted' is proof enough that Bollywood is craving its action fix. Interestingly, while the thus regarded chocolatey brigade (Salman, Aamir and Shahid) are going all mean and six pack-ed, the renowned action kings like Akshay Kumar and Ajay Devgan have completely renounced their days of thunder.

While Akshay is busy churning out 'Singh Is Kinng' and 'Chandni Chowk To China', Ajay is enjoying the jester's role as seen in the 'Golmaal' series and the forthcoming 'All The Best'. Maybe it's time the old boys came back to the game. Are you listening Sunny Deol?

Back to 'Wanted', it's Salman's show all the way. The film relies on his star power and like a true showman, he bares it all. It was a crucial release for the superstar who hasn't had a legit hit since 2007's 'Partner'. The success of his television game show, 10 Ka Dum notwithstanding, he's spent enough years in fickle Bollywood to know that it's the big kill that really counts and so he went out of his skin to promote the Boney Kapoor production.

The calculated gamble has paid off but next time, we would like a thrilling story to go with the thrilling lines. Salman has woken up, let's hope he doesn't hit the snooze button anytime soon.

'Wanted' had a clear edge over the other big Friday release, 'Dil Bole Hadippa'. The Rani Mukerji-Shahid Kapoor starrer strives to be a lot of things - a cricket film that talks of female emancipation - but ends up being a Punjab darshan at best. The treatment of the film is so amateurish that it comes across as a sad combination of 'Chak De India' and 'Rab Ne Bana Di Jodi'. Rani excels as the Sardar boy but sadly the film lets her down. Wish she leaves the hallowed corridors of YRF and attempt something fresh.

Rani needs new mojo. We need better films.