Action movie review: Vishal, Tamannaah starrer is a formulaic entertainer with no proper storyline

As the title suggest, Action is full of guns, explosion, parkour style chases on roofs, bike chases, cars blowing up and some close combat stunt scenes as the ‘hero’ is on a ‘mission impossible’. The film is packaged as a template Tamil masala entertainer laced with romance, songs, sentiments and patriotism.  Action has been shot in some exotic foreign locales in Turkey and Azerbaijan, but lacks a proper script and takes audiences for granted with far too many logical loopholes in the plot. The director Sundar C is a veteran who has done films with superstars in the industry, and is known for his rib-tickling, slapstick comedy entertainers. Once again he has teamed up with Vishal for the second time after Aambala, to make an action entertainer of a globe-trotting action hero. Sundar C himself in an interview said that he believes more in scene creation to sustain audience interest rather than telling a story. And so, Action is a series of scenes knit together with the hero taking centre stage and doing stunt scenes in some exotic locations. The film lacks a connect as there is no semblance of a basic story. [caption id=“attachment_7658071” align=“alignnone” width=“825”]  A still from Action starring Vishal, Tamannaah[/caption] The story is straightforward as there are no major twists or turns. Colonel Subash (Vishal) is a highly decorated officer in the intelligence wing of the Indian army. His father is the chief minister who now wants to retire and make his elder brother (Ramki), his political heir. But during a campaign, a bomb goes off killing Subash’s fiancée (Aishwarya Lakshmi) and later his brother too is murdered. The Colonel wants to track down the killers and is aided by his colleague Diya (Tamannaah) who has a soft corner for him. It leads them on a chase to London, Istanbul,  and finally to Lahore where they meet up with the don Malik (Kabir Duhan Singh), who is hand in glove with the Pakistan army. The duo wants to cause political upheaval in India.  In all the subsequent scenes, the hero gets away without a scratch in all the fight sequences. The film drags along for 158 minutes, and the climax is a straight lift of Ben Affleck-directed thriller Argo. The film’s weakest point is the characterisation of the villain and the concept of capturing the most wanted don from Pakistan and bringing him to justice in India. This ‘wishful plot’ has been seen in many Bollywood films and a web series has also recently explored it. The film has far too many hero-glorifying one-liners. The makers of Action have also brought in Vijay Sethupathi  for a special role,  who appears on screen to explain that all characters hereafter will be speaking in Tamil and that there won’t be subtitles. To be fair Vishal looks good in action scenes, especially the London street chase and the interval block cliff hanger scene. Tamannaah performs her role well, but Aishwarya Lakshmi, who is debuting in Tamil cinema,  is wasted in an insignificant role. If only the film had a script with some logic and was a bit racier, it could have been a time pass entertainer.