Bade Miyan Chote Miyan movie review: Akshay Kumar & Tiger Shroff fail to serve a delectable Eidi

Cast: Akshay Kumar, Tiger Shroff, Prithviraj Sukumaran, Sonakshi Sinha, Manushi Chhillar, Alaya F, Ronit Roy

Director: Ali Abbas Zafar

After delivering box office blockbusters like Sultan, Tiger Zinda Hai and Bharat, director Ali Abbas Zafar joined hands with Akshay Kumar and Tiger Shroff to give us an Eid treat in the form of Bade Miyan Chote Miyan. While the action entertainer created a humongous buzz before its release, does it live up to it? Let’s find out…

Ek naya dushman, purana dost hota hai (A new enemy is once a good old friend) sums up the entry of our lead antagonist, Kabir (Prithviraj Sukumaran), who ambushes a convoy at the Northern Himalayan valley and steals the most powerful technological weapon of India (code name - package) warning army that he is here to change the fate of India and the armed forces have 72 hours to stop him.

On this critical mission, Colonel Azad (Ronit Roy) plans to choose his two best ex-soldiers, Firoz aka Freddy (Akshay Kumar) and Rakesh aka Rocky (Tiger Shroff). Before sending Captain Misha (Manushi Chhillar) to convince the duo, he takes her to a flashback, where Rocky and Freddy are assigned a mission to save an Indian ambassador in Afghanistan along with his family and a female officer. Apart from saving the hostages, they kill all the terrorists and complete the mission successfully.

While this mission showed their camaraderie, it earned them the name of Bade and Chote among fellow soldiers. Cut to, Captain Misha now goes to convince Rakesh and Firoz. While Rocky accepts the mission, Freddy rejects it. Captain Misha and Rocky land in the UK, where the package is kept hidden under the tunnel under the protection of Kabir’s army. Misha and Rocky along with Pam (Alaya F), who is their asset and tech expert, enter the tunnel but get captured by the enemies.

And while it seems, the is getting compromised, Bade aka Freddy makes a heroic entry and saves everyone. They open the package and it turns out to be Captain Priya (Sonakshi Sinha), as all the codes of Karan Kavach (an invisible technological shield, that protects India from China and Pakistan’s rockets and arms). For the unversed, she is also the ex-fiance of Firoz.

Freddy tells Priya and Rocky that the enemy strategically forced them to come together and there is a personal revenge he wants to take from them. Well, what’s the back story and connection between Priya, Rocky, Freddy and Kabir and why do the latter want to destroy the country? For that, you need to watch Bade Miyan Chote Miyan on the big screen.

Ali Abbas Zafar, who has impressed us with great action and massy sequences in Tiger Zinda Hai, failed to recreate that magic with Bade Miyan Chote Miyan. Despite having a big scale and all the noise, the action pieces were not up to the mark. The narrative along with twists and turns looked pretty much predictable. The biggest issue was that the core point of conflict between the antagonist and protagonists didn’t seem convincing enough. The runtime of 164 minutes (2 hours 44 minutes) makes this movie unnecessarily over-stretched.

On the technical front, the editing department failed to keep the movie crisp and sharp. While the camera work is fine, in a few places it lacked to showcase the grandeur of Bade Miyan Chote Miyan. The music has turned out to be a huge disappointment as the filmmaker has given memorable albums in his movies like Mere Brother Ki Dulhan, Gunday, Sultan, Tiger Zinda Hai and Bharat.

Talking about the star performances, Akshay Kumar and Tiger Shroff as Bade and Chote are good but there is nothing new and unique about their traits apart from some cool camaraderie and banter. Manushi Chhillar and Alaya F attempt to put their best foot forward and deliver a decent performance. Sonakshi Sinha’s cameo as Captain Priya is good while Ronit lends his support well as Colonel Azad. Prithviraj Sukumaran as Kabir is badass and cool, however, it seems his character was not built well enough.

On the whole, Bade Miyan Chote Miyan could have been a perfect Eidi treat but missed the mark due to its strictly average execution.

Rating: 2.5 (out of 5 stars)

Bade Miyan Chote Miyan is playing in cinemas near you