Vidyut Jammwal's action franchise Commando 3 hit theatres on Friday. The film presents Jammwal as commando Karanveer Singh Dogra, an officer well trained in all types of martial arts, weaponry, guerrilla warfare, and hand-to-hand combat. In short, he is an Army in himself.
Dogra is a dutiful patriotic officer sent to find a criminal mastermind Buraq Ansari, who is planning a terrorist attack on India. Displaying his strength and agility with full grace, Jammwal is able to keep the audience's attention in check despite overused plot and patronising dialogues.
Let’s give the credit where it’s due, Jammwal is excellent in action scenes. He knows the action domain for sure. He catapults off roofs, slides inside a car through the window, takes on a man three times as big as him and so on, all with conviction. The actor leaves no stones unturned to convince us that he actually is the extremely capable soldier, the only person on the planet who can save India.
He overplays his strength and downplays his weakness. That is why, even though he does not have a very impressive filmography, he is one of the first names that pop up when one thinks of an action hero.
Jammwal profiting off in the film industry by making action-heavy films, however, is not a big surprise. Ever since Akshay Kumar detached himself from the ‘Khiladi’ films, the throne of the ultimate Bollywood action hero has been vacant. Though there have been occasional hits by Hrithik Roshan, John Abraham and even Salman Khan in the genre, none of them gained the title.
The only other actor whose profile fits the bill is Tiger Shroff. Like Jammwal, he also has a body to die for and is trained in difficult stunts. With both the Baaghi films and the recently released War, he has presented his candidature in a strong way, but he is not there yet, not without any opposition at least.
That brings us back to Jammwal, who seems to be in the knowhow of the developments. There is no pretention of looking like a great actor, it’s more about being an action performer for him, and that takes him really close to the throne.
Despite Baaghi carrying the true legacy of The Raid Redemption, Commando first stands apart for its action and single minded protagonist. The villain, played by Jaideep Ahlawat, was equally good. Even if we rate both the films identically, Commando 2’s action scenes were more thought-out then Baaghi 2, which was more about guns than glory.
With War, Shroff raised his stakes, but Commando 3 might counter it as far as hand to hand combat is concerned. The point is, there is a lot to be done in the action space.
Though with films like Vasan Bala's Mard ko Dard Nahi Hota, Indian filmmakers are diversifying the genre. So, the top exponents of the genre might want to mount their films beyond the usual drill. What Quentin Tarantino achieved through Uma Thurman in Kill Bill films, might not be a tough task for Bollywood filmmakers in near future.
Till then, let’s sit back and enjoy Jammwal jumping over buildings. He is definitely one hell of an action star in making.
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