Ganapath Star Cast/ Actors: Tiger Shroff as Ganapath Guddu, Amitabh Bachchan, Kriti Sanon as Jassi, Elli AvrRam as Rosie.
Ganapath Director: Vikas Bahl
Ganapath Release Date: 20 October 2023
Ganapath Available On: Theatrical release (and likely to be released on Netflix app)
Ganapath Released/ Available In Languages: Hindi, Kannada, Tamil, Malayalam, Telugu
Ganapath Runtime: 133 minutes
Ganapath Critic Review:
There’s nobody to beat Tiger Shroff when it comes to a chiselled six-pack, flying kicks and quicksilver moves in the fight arena and on the dance floor.
Vikas Bahl who writes and directs this tale of the messiah of impoverished masses, had that potent Tiger machine to craft a kickass cinematic adventure. But Tiger’s skills as the superstructure are constructed on a weak and meek foundation that’s as lustreless as the dystopian world dominated by dust and dull brown colours. It makes you wonder, is this the man who directed Queen and Super 30 with such sparkle?
The super-rich and the super-poor with a supposedly impenetrable wall between them is as ancient a theme as Mohenjo-daro and Harappa. With tacky special effects and a cast of grotesque, unrecognisable faces, Silver City where the privileged lead debauched lives, acquires a cardboard-like quality that is more a disconnect than an immersive experience.
Guddu (Tiger Shroff), introduced after a regular night of orgy with more girls in and around his bed than the fingers on your hands, works for John The Englishman who reports to Dalini, the mystery boss of Silver City. Guddu’s speciality, apart from the swagger with a chain in his mouth, is to assess the strengths and weaknesses of fighters for John’s money-making fights, rigged of course. And he hates those occasional forays into the other side where he goes to pick the best fighters.
Meanwhile, a living oracle called Dalapati (Amitabh Bachchan, also dressed grotesquely) has predicted that Ganapath the saviour will come one day to lift the poor out of their oppressed lives.
Following a template that has lost its sheen through overuse, Guddu becomes Ganapath.
But not before he meets Jassi (Kriti Sanon), introduced as a super fighter, and the man he’s been told to meet: Shiva.
You expect important characters like John and Shiva to be formidably well-established actors. But Vikas has Rahman from the south, relatively unknown to the Hindi audience, playing the part of Shiva who’s blind and for a master fighter and trainer, has a bit of a paunch too.There’s a Palestinian actor called Ziad Bakri cast as John who is also unknown, hams a lot, chews a cigar, and doesn’t have a voice, so he has a device at the back of his neck to issue staccato instructions like, “Bury him alive”.
Therefore, except for a sleek looking Tiger, the screen is awash with unfamiliar and drab figures.
The cardboard feeling continues whichever side of the wall you’re in as there’s no chemistry and no sweet, romantic moments, no build-up at all to the Ganapath-Jassi love story.
In an elaborate sequence where Jassi is kidnapped by someone called Tabahi (played by French mixed martial artist Jesse Liaudin, again unfamiliar to the Hindi audience), the super woman with nunchaku skills meekly goes like a damsel in distress which should’ve raised a red flag there and then.
Vikas Bahl tries to bring in twists that are supposed to stun the viewer. But with a narration that fails to emotionally engage the audience, the turns fall flat.
It is unfair to Tiger that like Baaghi 3, he gets to only showcase his already well-established fight-and-dance skills with no substance to bind them together for watchable cinema. The dialogues too, are cringey like “Marta nahi, maartahoon”.
By the time Ganapathawakens to protect the oppressed, the one question you want to ask is, if this is Part 1, do we really need a Part 2 called Ganapath: Rise Of The Hero?
Ganapath – Watch Or Not?: Watch it only if you want a replay of Tiger Shroff’s amazing moves.
Ganapath Review Score Rating: 2 out of 5 (i.e. 2/5)
Ganapath Official Trailer: