GURKHA MOVIE REVIEW CLICK TO RATE THE MOVIE

Sam Anton's Gurkha, starring Yogi Babu as the lead, deals with the story of how Babu (Yogi Babu) saves the hostages inside a mall captured by terrorists. Yogi Babu plays the lead as a Gurkha in the film, and it begins with a narration of how Gurkhas came to Tamil Nadu and the difficulties they face, such as racism. The film does more to make us sympathize with them than empathize, i.e., it makes you pity them, but you don't feel their pain.

Barring the narration at the start, the film keeps trolling every single character or profession that appears in the film. A Gurkha, a watchman, a media person, a politician, a police officer, even the US Ambassador is not spared. You have characters like Blue Sattai Maran, Nithyananda, H Raja, whose names are changed on purpose, but what is the purpose, when none of them add anything to the plot. These gags have become highly predictable to the extent that we can sense the joke coming.

The villain, played by Raj Bharath, hijacks a theatre in the mall and threatens to kill the hostages if the government doesn't meet his financial demands. He is a dangerous terrorist according to the police records, but all he does is just threatening the police officers outside the mall, in order to transfer money to a specific bank account. The motive behind that is also not clear, because of which we don't invest in the film. The rest of the story is whether Yogi Babu, who accidentally gets stuck inside the mall with Charlie and his dog, save the hostages or not.

While it is not logical (since the disclaimer asks us not to expect in the credits) to expect much logic in a mindless comedy entertainer, the film takes this for granted. Sample this: A person does not die when he's shot because he has a Nokia 6610 that takes the bullet for him. There are many more scenes like the above-mentioned one, that lacks any thought. Even Yogi Babu's jokes fall flat at various places because it's all about the appearances of a person and not anything funny.

Elyssa Erhardt is seen playing the role of a US Ambassador, who doesn't have security around her as and when the film wishes. For instance, Yogi Babu barges into her house while chasing a small kid, and there is no guard. As he watches her getting out of the swimming pool, the guards arrive. We are not able to buy the fact that she doesn't react when she sees a stranger inside her house, without a tinge of remorse.

A few dialogues make you cringe so much. A film that speaks about the people who protect us (includes Army, Watchmen, and Gurkhas) doesn't bother to care about them as it intends to do. For the sake of a gag, a fellow Gurkha tells Babu: "We are Gurkhas. We have to stay strong even if our wives run away with someone else." In another scene, an ex-army officer says "If I had died during service, people would have shared my photo on Facebook in the name of respect, which is better than getting treated like this in a police station." Which side is the director on? The sole saving grace is a meagre 10-15 minute portion in the second half where Yogi Babu runs riot.

GURKHA VIDEO REVIEW