After watching and thoroughly enjoying S. S. Rajamouli's RRR, I decided that I would try and catch a few more Bollywood action films, a genre that, thus far, I have been relatively unfamiliar with. Luckily, my local cinema shows quite a lot of such films, and so, armed with my Unlimited membership, I have been venturing out into the world of over-the-top Indian action and synchronised dance scenes to try and broaden my knowledge.
Last week it was Jawan, which I thought was a lot of fun, and this week I booked a ticket for Skanda: The Attacker, which also looked hugely entertaining. And it was. The film delivered everything I expected from such a movie: an almost three hour run-time with an interval, impossibly tough heroes with big beards, beautiful women, loads of ridiculous action and slow motion, hair ruffled by wind machines, despicable villains, and amazingly choreographed musical interludes.
The plot sees two corrupt chief ministers frame an honourable businessman for numerous crimes after he refuses to help them launder dirty money, and so the son of the businessman's best friend embarks on a mission to clear the innocent man's name. Love, betrayal, and bravery are the order of the day, with the occasional break for those obligatory vibrant and energetic song and dance numbers. It's formulaic storytelling, which makes it fairly easy for a Bollywood newbie like myself to keep track of things. Only in the closing moments did I get a tad confused, with the introduction of a heroic character who I still haven't a scooby about, but with so much good stuff in the film, I didn't let that spoil my enjoyment.
And as a fan of brutal movie violence, I particularly appreciated the excess of gore in the film, with countless bad guys (and a couple of good ones) despatched in spectacularly bloody fashion. This film puts many a modern horror movie to shame with the amount of bodies beaten, broken, sliced and impaled in the name of entertainment. Perhaps, over time, I will become bored by the Bollywood action format, but for now, colour me entertained. 7.5/10, rounded up to 8 for IMDb.