Kick Movie Review: An Outrageously Silly Film

Cast: Salman Khan, Jacqueline Fernandez, Randeep Hooda, Nawazuddin Siddiqui

Directors: Sajid Nadiadwala

The first thing you should know about Kick is that it is an outrageously silly film. It lurches from a thwarted love story to infantile comedy to slick action to shamelessly manipulative melodrama without any attempt at coherence or consistency.

Kick is the official remake of a 2009 Telugu blockbuster also called Kick, but debutant director Sajid Nadiadwala bungs in Hollywood-inspired action, snatches of Dhoom 3 and even a smattering of Jab Tak Hai Jaan. Salman Khan plays Devi Lal Singh, an adrenalin junkie who has quit 32 jobs in search of a kick (incidentally, every character in this film says Kick at least a dozen times, just in case you forgot which film you were watching). He falls in love with a psychiatrist named Shaina, played by Jacqueline Fernandez. With great affection, he calls her Dr Psycho. Meanwhile she gets to say lines like: "Social psychology ke hisab se aadmi ki pehchaan uske kaam se hoti hai."

Jacqueline is like a pretty wax doll and even the film doesn't take Shaina seriously. Anyway, Shaina can't put up with Devi's hunger for excitement, so they break up. And he somehow evolves into Devil, a Robin Hood-type masked robber who steals from the rich to give to the poor. Enter super cop Himanshu Tyagi, played by Randeep Hooda, who becomes both Shaina's fiancée and Devil's nemesis. Cops in Hindi movies are usually bumbling idiots but Himanshu is a whole new level of incompetent.

Are you following this story? It doesn't matter. Because a Salman Khan film isn't about the plot. It's about Salman, who once again plays his signature persona — a charming, playful, slightly crooked superman with a heart of gold. What's fun is that Salman is in on the joke. He's aware that he's on the screen not to deliver a performance but to give us a good time.

But even if you're willing to ignore the logic-free story and buy heavily into the cult of Bhai, Kick is bumpy, and far too convoluted to deliver the joyride of a Dabangg. What does work are the thrilling action sequences; Rajat Aroraa's crackling dialogue; and, above all, Nawazuddin Siddiqui as the wicked Shiv Gajra.