By Renu Baliyan
Toofaan is Director Rakeysh Omprakash Mehra’s second film on sports theme that got released on Amazon Prime. Farhan Akhtar plays an important role in the film. Earlier, Farhan and Rakeysh Omprakash Mehra collaborated together for Bhag Milkha Bhagin 2013 where Farhan played the role of a famous Olympics runner. This time Rakeysh’s Toofaan ventures into the boxing ring. Toofaan is a basically a story filled with emotional melodrama and madness.
In the film, Aziz Ali aka Ajju Bhai (Farhan) portrays the role of gangster from the Mumbai suburb of Dongri who has expertise in extortion and loan collection through violent ways. Ajju Bhai was raised in an orphanage.
Interestingly, there is a U-turn in the film and Ali feels that boxing may make him a powerful thug. He meets with Doctor Ananya Prabhu (Mrunal Thakur) and his life takes an altogether different turn. They fall in love with each other. The filmmakers take the risk of showcasing the love story of a Muslim boxer and Hindu doctor.
After Ajju Bhai is motivated by Ananya Pandey, he takes the resolve to become boxer Aziz Ali. To chase his dream of becoming a boxer, he meets Nana Prabhu (PareshRawal) who in the beginning was unwilling to train Ali because he is a Muslim from Dongri. However, the coach finally relents and gets agreed to train him.
However, the film has presented several issues and it appears that it is dragging at one point of time leaving audience confused where it is heading. On the contrary, film like Dhangal scored big because it did not lose its focus.
On the other hand, Toofan drags towards the end and takes unnecessary and way too many turns and frequently use the emotional card to keep audience engaged.
Farhan Akhtar is a good actor and he did justice to the character that he played in the film. When he leaves boxing briefly, he looks bulkier and when he plays the role of a boxer, his body looks thoroughly chiseled. Right from his body language to the way of talking, the hard work of Farhan is visible in the film.
Mrunal Thakur did good job to her role as a doctor in a charity hospital. She is quite charming as a bubbly girl. Paresh Rawal is a class actor and his performance is great in the film. He played the role of a coach with great conviction.
Toofaan is a film which can be avoided unless you are a big Farhan Akhtar fan. The film is a below average film combining too many issues.
Filmi Files Ranking: *
