With only a day to go for Hrithik Roshan and Tiger Shroff to go head to head in the all-out action romp War, we decided to look back at some of Hindi cinema's most unintentionally hilarious action sequences. Bollywood has a rich heritage of utterly bonkers scenes which have been passed off in the name of 'great action'. Moments that made you go 'say whaaa' or 'what were they collectively smoking?' or 'I didn't know buildings/people/vehicles could bend that way'. Many are essentially an ongoing exercise in trying to find new and creative ways to have our heroes go shirtless. In short, these are gifts that just keep on giving.
Like cohesive plots, clothing has always been optional in Salman Khan movies with any film that's sans a topless scene considered a major deal breaker by bhai fans. But among all of these (which honestly deserve their own list) Dabangg remains the gold standard with Chulbul Pandey's police uniform spontaneously ripping off his body out of sheer force of will and anger and intensity… or something.
What is the Race franchise if not a giant middle finger to science, logic and the laws of nature? Rarely has that been felt in the franchise more than that golden sequence in Race 2 when Saif Ali Khan gingerly drives his convertible out of a flight in mid-air with parachutes attached. You know, as you do.
What you've never uprooted a lamppost by shaking it a whole bunch before? Clearly you haven't lived. Despite being considered one of his more competent films, Rohit Shetty's Singham was clearly lacking in the action department. Nothing comes close to Ajay Devgn's angry cop schooling a bunch of thugs with lamp post in hand, followed by him slapping a guy down so hard that he somehow flies upwards and ending of course, with a belt whipping extravaganza.
Sure Ghajini was supposedly positioned as an intelligent thriller which aspires to more than masala, but it was hard to take the film seriously when you have moments like that of a jacked-up Aamir Khan slapping someone with such force that his neck turns 180 degrees. Seriously what is with these dudes and their power-slapping?
Sometimes you need a little variety in your life to spice up how you kill your bad guys because you know, it gets monotonous after a while. Enter Action Jackson which really brings the action in a 'Good Lord what am I even watching?' kind of way. This legendary scene has him hack his way through a bunch of baddies before delivering one of the most significant lines to ever be said onscreen: 'na commitment na appointment.. only punishment'. Riveting stuff.
Shirtless Salman? Check. Shirtless…Bobby Deol? Check. Random oversized rocket launcher that somehow activates by giving it a little shake? Check. I think that's all there is to really say about this one. This spectacular piece of art entirely speaks for itself.
When the trailer of John Abraham-starrer Satyameva Jayate released, the headline of one article simply read 'But What Was John Doing Inside A Tyre?', which is the perfect kind of intellectual question this film posed to the mind of its audience. Rumour is in the sequel he'll be seen busting out of a hula hoop. At this point, John Abraham deserves a dedicated list of him breaking stuff.
2008's Tashan was yet another gem of silliness with a number of scenes which will remain unforgettable for all the wrong reasons. Among them was Akshay Kumar's monkey act which had him jumping around while 30 or so armed henchmen with the collective aim of an excitable pigeon attempted to shoot him, while basically just waiting around until he grabs their guns and shoots them all in one much wow amaze sweep.
What's positioned as a final showdown fight is actually just two men gradually undressing each other and looking deeply into each other's eyes. Between the blaring background score, random grunts, and sudden tears, this final showdown comes across as nothing more than a ridiculous play fight.
Arguably the 'action' stars largest fight sequence till date was the utterly off the rails final scene in Baaghi 2 when an enraged Tiger charges into an army of men, dodging all of their bullets until he takes them down one at a time in his distinctive badass ballet style.