Knock Out- Knocked Out of my Senses

‘Was Knock out entertaining?’  ‘Yes for the masses.’ ‘Was Knockout a plagiarized copy of the Collin Farell thriller, Phonebooth?’  ‘Yes.’ ‘Was it as good?’ ‘ Uhh...ok next question’  ‘Will you buy the DVD and watch it again sometime?’ ‘Never in a million years! ‘ . Mani Shankar’s Knock Out, made me wish I had a gun to my head. The story of a morally challenged guy who stops by a PCO (I haven’t seen a bulletproof non STD PCO like the one shown in the movie in my 22 years in Mumbai, clean, transparent, with newspapers and a copy of Vogue on display ) and has a sniper take him hostage making him confess his crimes and sins infront of the world and live television.

Formal Flavours

So there are 5 main characters in this movie 1. Our sniper Sanjay Dutt, who is the guy hidden in the glass building and strutting about in his black sweater, white round neck t-shirt, khaki trousers and fancy piece of metal aiming at the booth. His character has the vision to return 32 thousand crores (catch him with the shunya shunya shunya dialogue) to the Indian treasury. Moving on to character 2. Our sinful ladies man and Indian version of Collin Farell (shoot me now) is Irrfan Khan. With Gucci shoes, an Armani suit, a diamond Rolex (worth 1 Khokha translated 1 crore) and mutant eye ware with purplish red frames, he is the hostage and this dude apparently can transfer millions of dollars from Swiss banks into any account anywhere in a matter of minutes even as bullets are fired. He also cheats on his salwar clad wife, drugs and takes advantage of women, supports a brothel, which is all easily forgiven and dances to the popular Bollywood track’ Zara Zara touch me touch me’ not to mention cheers the audience on as he braves the bullets and  transfers money. Sigh! Character 3. Is our very own desi bred Kangana Ranuat, gone are the days of journos with dark circles under their eyes, khadi coats and jholas, we have reporter Nidhi (character name) reporting crime with an off shoulder tunic, grey stylish overcoat, pursed lips and stilettos! Her English has improved ever so slightly and her role is quite authentic, she conveys the persistent character of reporters today and also cheers on as the money transfer occurs. Finally we have character 4 and 5, who are the cop played by a sweaty Sushant Singh in a blue shirt and once again Raybans (this is a serious trend catching up) and manicured white safari suited politician Gulshan Grover who delivers to the characters effectiveness.

Overall entertaining and irritating!

My Rating: 1.5/5

By: Lily Shroff