By Neha Ravindran
Movie: Akira
Director: R M Murugadoss
Cast: Sonakshi Sinha, Anurag Kashyap, Atul Kulkarni, Konkana Sen
Genre: Action thriller
Bollywood is slowly veering towards exploring scripts with strong women characters. Challenging gender stereotypes, these movies also mark in important turn in the history of Indian cinema. The movie Akira, right from the trailers, hinted at a strong female character oriented movie and trust me, it doesn’t disappoint.
Akira (Sonakshi Sinha) has had a rough childhood. Trained in martial arts, she attacked a goon but in an unexpected turn of events was convicted of attacking people and send to a remand home. As a college going girl she is a recluse and mostly keeps to herself. In a freaky turn of fate, Akira gets embroiled in a incident of corruption which gets murkier as it goes. Will she ever be able to prove her innocence or fade away from the world into the walls of a mental asylum.
Akira is the remake of the Tamil movie Mouna Guru. In general when a story is translated into another language, bits and pieces of the story is lost in the translation process. Also in an attempt to cater to the demands of the new audience, tweaks in the script tears the storyline. Akira, as an independent identity has managed to create a storyline that is impressive and engaging. The character of Akira played by Sonakshi Sinha is an independent girl, recluse and quiet by nature. Sonakshi has aptly captured the essence of the character through her body language and expressions. She has undergone rigour ours training to master the action sequences. Anurag Kashyap’s acting debut as a corrupt police officer is certainly worth remembering. He is crass, crude, corrupt to the core and an absolute delight to watch on screen. Konkana Sen as pregnant ACP Rabiyais symbolic of all women who take care of their kids and family without jeopardising their careers. The supporting cast has beautifully eased their parts retaining their individual space.
The initial shots of Jodhpur is beautiful. The cinematography the turns more story focussed rather than theme centred. Music by Vishal-Shekar never overpowers the scene itself. Rather plays as a background score supporting the storyline. The action sequence is well choreographed where Akira is not portrayed as asuper women ( unlike the hero-heroism where they can send people flying off to Mars). Rather it’s evident that she is simply a well trained martial artist who is capable enough to defend herself. The only low point is the second half of the movie which often made me ask that is the director a little confused? The ending put me off altogether but then it stems from a personal disagreement with how the second half was treated.
Akira is a well directed venture and certainly not worth missing.
My verdict: ***
