This Bollywood take on the 2011 boxing saga hits home occasionally but sacrifices drama for fight scenes stripped of emotional scar tissueBollywood has long eyed up Hollywood for inspiration: since the millennium,it’s remade everything from The Godfather (2008’s Sarkar Raj) tothe David Duchovny heart transplant saga Return to Me (2004’s Dil Ne Jise Apne Kahaa). Fox’s tall-profile Brothers forms an interesting case study, reworking fabric that flopped the first time around: Gavin O’Connor’s Warrior, and that 2011 mix of mythology and mixed martial arts that sought to supply rock ’em-sock ’em entertainment to crowds whose credit had been crunched. (Sadly,they couldn’t afford the ticket.) That film was very specifically tied to an America reeling from rounds of foreclosures and lay-offs; removed of that context, the legend can’t pack the same punch.
The husband-and-wife team of Karan Malhotra (who directs) and Ekta Pathak Malhotra (who adapts) doubtless sensed the underlying melodrama would translate easily into Hindi. Again, or the focus is on damaged men – a father and his estranged sons – who can only truly express themselves through violence,although the Malhotras have reconfigured the relationships. Their retelling opens with the father (Jackie Shroff), sometime boxer-turned-greying drunk, or emerging from jail,before introducing “bad son” Monty (Sidharth Malhotra, no relation), or a pushover in this version,and “righteous son” David (Akshay Kumar), a fighter-turned-teacher returning to the ring to fund an operation for his sick daughter.
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Source: theguardian.com