Holiday - A Soldier Is Never Off Duty Review

One Line Review: Failed experiment with high octane stunts and deliberately invoked humour.

Positive Points: Adrenaline pumping action captured with stylish camera angles, good background music and melodious music tracks - the meal you get for the money you paid.

Negative Points: Lump in the throat dialogue delivery style of Akshay Kumar, tested-and-failed humour hammered into the movie often giving you a feeling that you are watching a Priyadarshan movie.

Plot: While on leave from duty, Captain Virat Bakshi (Akshay Kumar) arrives in Mumbai also to find a suitable bride Saiba (Sonakshi Sinha) for himself. In the meantime, Virat gets his routes crossing against the mastermind (Freddy Daruwala), a terrorist kingpin. Daruwala plants sleeper cells all over the country putting the nation is domestic danger. Virat who is in Mumbai, directs a team of 20-25 men to blow off a terrorist team that is already making rounds in the city to trigger the bombs. Stone faced Daruwala, the antagonist of the movie, directs Virat through phone threatening to blow up the city into flames. How Virat takes the challenge to protect the city from the enemies forms the rest of the story.

Direction And Other Technical Aspects: With a promising director like A. R. Murugadoss who has directed hits like 'Ghajini', 'Thuppakki', '7am Arivu', it is most likely viewers won't afford to miss a cinema made by a promising director. Direction is good but when unwanted songs are drilling out of nowhere into the movie, you feel a little distracted and bored.

Cinematography is top-notch. Natarajan Subramaniam who has showcased his work in critically acclaimed movies like last train to 'Mahakali', 'Black Friday', 'Paanch', 'Knock Out' and 'Raanjhanaa', his work reflected flawlessness and met perfection. The look and the visually stunning atmospheric settings give you all you want as far as the set-frames and visuals in the movie are concerned. Action sequences in the movie are adrenaline pumping captured with Ram Gopal Varma imitated camera angles and are worth the efforts instilled by the action director bringing something real unlike those literally impossible neck twisting sequences that we get to see in movies that calls action its spine. The scene where Virat wields a sharp shear on a suspect's finger is disturbing. Art direction and costumes need no special mention as it served what was needed in the movie. But efforts need to be credited. Visual effects are excellent and you get to see unbelievably amazing visuals at all intense moments especially during the action sequences and also need to mention about the bus exploding sequence which was a jerk in the spine. Top-notch is how I put it in one word.

Performance: Akshay Kumar has given a good performance with humour being his selling point. Sonakshi Sinha has very little scope in this movie with only a few tickling comedy scenes to perform in the movie. Govinda though appeared in a cameo pulled off his part with perfection. Supporting actors and junior actors did their bit that was needed. SUMEET RAGHAVAN does a great work which helps build Akshay Kumar's value in the movie. Freddy Daruwala was apt and did his part quite well.

Music: Music is just average. Pritam Chakraborty has given some peppy songs for this flick with two tracks can't help not mentioning which are sure-shot playlist numbers, "Shayarana" sung by Arijit Singh and "Tu Hi Toh Hai" sung by Kunal Ganjawala.

Final Verdict: This flick is a must watch for Akshay Kumar fans and of course for those who love jaw dropping action, this one is a must-go. This holiday is surely enjoyable with good action and a thought provoking message at the end of the movie.