STORY: Satyakanth Shastri (Mithun) is the righteous father, who adores his ‘sanskari’ younger son but disowns the elder, as he resorts to violence to fight injustice. They part ways and the ethical but shorttempered son grows up to become Boss (Akshay Kumar) – a contract killer who learns to laugh in the face of adversity. Do they reunite? REVIEW: ‘Apne ko kya hai, apne ko toh bus paani nikalna hain’ is Boss Akshay’s punch line in the movie. If you rephrase it a little with ‘Apne ko toh bus Akshay Kumar ka stunts dekhna hai’, then Boss is a ‘kick-ass’ entertainer. After all, we all know who the Boss of action in Bollywood is. A remake of 2010 Malayalam film, Pokkiri Raja, Boss is a formulaic action comedy. There are truckloads of stunts throughout and whatever falls in between constitutes the plot so don’t expect logic. It seems the action was probably chalked out before and the 70’s-like melodramatic story was inserted later as filler, which explains why most characters end up being silent spectators, once Akshay makes an entry.

The very vicious ACP Ayushman Thakur (Ronit Roy, brilliant) in particular gets easily outplayed by our Haryanvi hero. The romantic track between Shiv Pandit and Aditi Rao Hydari is terribly inconsequential. To cut a long story short, Boss solely relies on Akshay’s star power and he carries the film on his shoulders with aplomb. It’s his dialoguebazi and filmygiri that make you smile, no matter how corny the one-liners. He climbs the walls at a lightning speed like a Spiderman, jumps over rooftops, trucks and makes his way in a crowded place by walking over the heads of his enemies. He makes gravity-defying stunts look believable. We particularly liked this elaborate chase sequence which looks like it’s been shot in one-take. From cracking of bones to the crunching of chanas that the villain munches on, the sound effects add to the intensity of the slow-mo stunt scenes. Mithun Chakraborty goes overboard with his preachy Nirupa Roy-esque character and is thus unintentionally funny. Ronit Roy has a superb presence.

Sadly, he gets meagre footage. Aditi Rao Hydari and Shiv Pandit are used as mere props. SHRADDHA KEEN TO MOVE BEYOND ROMANCE IN FILMS Actress Shraddha Kapoor, recently seen in successful love saga ‘Aashiqui 2’, says she wants to go beyond the genre of romance on screen, and try her luck at different roles, especially a grey character. “The fact that people liked Aashiqui 2 and my character (Aarohi) in it, they now want to see me in a lot more romantic films. I would like to do romantic films, but honestly I would like to do beyond that as well,” Shraddha told reporters at an event. “I would like to do other genres also and it will be interesting,” she added. Shraddha, daughter of actor Shakti Kapoor, made her Bollywood debut with Teen Patti in 2010. But she earned popularity only with Aashiqui 2. Asked about the kind of roles she wants to play, Shraddha said: “If I will get the opportunity to be a part of a very interesting character that has grey or white shades, then why not? I would love to play it.” Meanwhile, the actress will soon be seen in Mohit Suri’s next The Villain. Besides, she has also teamed up with director Rohit Shetty for his next project, which is expected to go on floors soon