'Radhe' review: Treat for Salman Khan fans, torture for others
Salman Khan is back at it with Radhe: Your Most Wanted Bhai. The film premiered on the ZEE5 streaming service today at noon, but on a pay-per-view model, so you have to shell out Rs. 249 in addition to the subscription. Helmed by Prabhu Deva, Radhe is a remake of a 2017 South Korean film called The Outlaws. Here's our honest review, without spoilers.
Khan plays a cop yet again, takes on Hooda's Rana
Radhe starts with the introduction of a nefarious gang leader known by a character named Rana played by Randeep Hooda. Khan plays a cop named, no surprises there, Radhe, who vows to clean the city of drugs and criminals such as Rana. Then, there is the stylish Disha Patani, who plays an aspiring model named Diya Abhyankar, and Radhe's naive love interest.
Hooda tries to shine despite poor storyline, bad hairstyling
Khan acts just like any of his previous films and is not fun or funny anymore. There is a scene where he himself gets stunned and falls asleep on Patani's shoulder, perhaps due to the boring script! Hooda tried to save the day with his skillful acting and overcomes the piss-poor script and scenes where he's mindlessly stabbing people with blood spouting around.
Meet Shroff, the cringe master; What's with the impossible age-gap?
Jackie Shroff (Radhe's boss and Diya's brother) is also wasted due to a tawdry script. One of his most cringey scenes is him taking selfies with three women, and repeatedly saying, "I respect women." Also, can we talk about the impossible age gap? Patani is 28 and Shroff is 64: For him to be her elder brother, their mother must be a superhero.
Patani felt like a hanger for designer clothes
Patani looked alluring in the film, but just like all the other films by Khan, not much is asked of her. Her patting on Radhe's obviously strong shoulders and biceps in a scene and telling him to "build his body" did give me a slight chuckle. But, there isn't any depth to the character; Patani just felt like a hanger for designer clothes.
Repetitive dialogues, shoddy sound-mixing, dialogue audio didn't match lip movements
The storyline is tedious and dull. There are a lot of inside jokes from some of the other films starring Khan, which fans might appreciate, but please retire the "Ek baar jo maine commitment kar di" line now. The film's audio felt forced, probably due to shoddy sound engineering and mixing. In some scenes, the dialogue audio didn't even match the lip movement.
Final Rating: 1.5/5 but rating for Bhai fans: 5/5
Radhe feels like that typical brainless, adrenaline-pumping big-ticket Bollywood potboiler you'd watch without thinking. The film does have one redeeming quality though, its runtime, which is under two hours, less than Khan's other films. Now, if you are his fan then you'd give it a watch anyway. But if not, skip this and thank me. Final Rating: 1.5/5 Rating for Bhai fans: 5/5
