Of macho fists and sculpted bodies

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We are told that Shah Rukh Khan hates Amitabh Bachchan and that is why he decided to piss on senior Bachchan’s legacy with his face-pulling Don. We have also heard about the enmity between Salman Khan and John Abraham, and that’s why, it seems, the Malayali-Parsi boy has jumped into the Afghan-Hindu Khan’s territory, his shirt off, muscles rippling and screaming, “Size dekh ke baat kiya kar.” I like it.

But that’s not the only reason why I thoroughly enjoyed this Wanted clone. John Abraham can’t act. He emotes. But in the scenario that is Force, where he possesses just two compatible brain cells — one to love Maya (Genelia D’souza) with, and the other to hate bad drug dons with — and a large, mushy heart, he is bang-on.
Force’s story, told mostly in flashback, is similar to Wanted. ACP Yashvardhan (John Abraham), of the narcotics bureau, goes undercover to finish drug cartels. A loner, he is not given to diversions or fear. He bashes up bad guys ruthlessly and would like to continue doing so for the rest of his life. But one day when he sees cute NGO worker Maya and feels his heart going boom boody-boom boody, he shakes his head, centres himself and gets back to pounding the bloody-faced goon.
Just like Salman’s Radhe/Rajveer Shekhawat didn’t want any love-shav ka chakkar, so it is with Yash.
But Yash likes Maya and it shows. She sees it too, when he rushes her to a hospital after she’s been hit by a speeding car, cradling her and weeping. Maya, like Wanted’s Jhanvi, is relentless, Bambi-eyed and a bit dumb. She pursues Yash. Says she feels safe when wrapped around him. And when he still doesn’t react, says she would like to make love to him.
Yash drops his defences and says “I love you” in return. Wedding date is fixed.
But Force is an action film and Yash is a man on a mission. While Maya was chasing and admiring him, he found an informer who knew the entire drug network, from Rajasthan to Goa to Himachal, and was happy to share details. Since this was a serious operation, Yash, with the help of his boss (Raj Babbar), creates a small task force — Atul (Mohnish Behl), Mahesh Pandey and Kamlesh Sawant.
Happy though the boys were at having wiped out all drug manufacturers and suppliers, they soon discover they were set up by a drug don who now, thanks to them, has monopoly in the business of psychotropic substances.
Yash and his boys turn their attention to this elusive gang, kill the boss, Anna (Mukesh Rishi), while his younger brother Vishnu (Vidyut Jamwal), the brain behind the entire operations, is watching.
We met Vishu earlier, in Mombasa, where, just like Yash, he took on a group of menacing men whose pistols were aimed at him. Vishnu is not like other goondas. His self-preservation instinct is underdeveloped. He loved his brother, and will go after all those who killed him, and their families.
Many gruesome murders and heartbreaking tragedies later we come to the final faceoff between Yash and Vishnu, two bare-chested, bare-knuckled men who are angry as hell.

NISHIKANT KAMAT, who directed the critically-acclaimed Marathi film Dombivili Fast, revisits the cop-revenge films of the Eighties and serves a film that’s faster, bloodier. There is a lot of firing, hammering and flinging about. But there’s also drama and tension around the wellbeing of the lead couple.
If Force gets its characters and raison d’etre from Wanted, it gets its plot from the Tamil hit film Kaakha Kaakha and its soul from Ghajni.
Kamat’s casting is bang on. Genelia as Maya is so innocent and delicate that we worry for her throughout. And when Vishnu violates the friendship ring of the honest cops, we really want them to rip him apart.
And John is just the right man for the job. His dimples covered with a stubble and his muscles decorated with tattoos, Yash makes you forget that John ever pranced around in tight little yellow chaddies. We are not supposed to drool over Yash, but he is so utterly charming and emotionally vulnerable. Maya caresses him nicely for us.
John Abraham’s Force and Salman Khan’s Wanted are different in three very significant ways. Salman didn’t need the support of talented actors to keep the interest going. John does. Mohnish Behl, Sandhya Mridul and Kamlesh Sawant are all nicely etched out characters who mean something to the film and to us.
Second, the killing machine that is John, hurts, worries, bleeds and weeps, and none of this takes away from his manliness. It just makes him real, believable and easier to identify with.
And finally, John fights a man his own size, only lither. Vidyut Jamwal is a brilliant find. He is dapper and cold-blooded, and matches John pack to pack, fist to fist, glare to glare. His stunts are amazing, but even more enticing is his body that seems made of some kind of flexi fibre. I say, Hello, Mr Jamwal.