Sunny days are here again. The ageing Deol dude plays a cross between a desi James Bond and a Demolition Man with the flair of an Eskimo stranded in a desert. Brazen jingoism is palmed off as patriotic zeal and heroism is couched in crass cracks at Pakistan's perfidy.
Sorry, The Hero is just too shrill and over the top to be effective either as entertainment or an expose of the situation in Kashmir. If this is what the solution is going to be, sorry Mr. Anil Sharma, the problem is no worse? The rabble-rousing, fire-spewing hero is sub-zero as far as impact goes. The film he is supposed to carry on his shoulders, as a result, has as much steam as a kettle gone cold.
Sunny's bunny has to be a Pakistani. This time around, it is the ISI chief himself (Amrish Puri hams his way through the role with fierce determination). Ishaq Khan - that's him - hatches a plot to arm the Kashmir fidayeen with a nuclear bomb. But his is a lost cause in the face of the valour and cunning of a RAW spy high on adrenaline (Sunny Deol).
The superhero specialises in donning disguises that would put fancy dress competition participants to shame. They are dead giveaways, but our possessed Pakistani posse is too preoccupied with the bomb to see through the hero's flimsy get-ups. So our man Arun Kumar is free to adopt any identity with impunity - an obese under-secretary Ajoy Chakraborty, an idealistic army officer Ravi Batra, a poetry-loving Indonesian nuclear scientist Wahid Khan… Having fun on the run was never easier.
{{/usCountry}}The superhero specialises in donning disguises that would put fancy dress competition participants to shame. They are dead giveaways, but our possessed Pakistani posse is too preoccupied with the bomb to see through the hero's flimsy get-ups. So our man Arun Kumar is free to adopt any identity with impunity - an obese under-secretary Ajoy Chakraborty, an idealistic army officer Ravi Batra, a poetry-loving Indonesian nuclear scientist Wahid Khan… Having fun on the run was never easier.
{{/usCountry}}But that is not the only duty the script allots to the pugnacious protagonist. His heart beats as much for invincible India as it does for a pretty Kashmiri girl (Preity Zinta) who has been raised by a Muslim couple after the death of her Hindu parents. The hero sends her on an undercover mission to Pakistan - remember, it's duty above all else -- and she duly gets into big, big trouble.
As if that weren't enough, terrorists attack the pair's engagement party. Caught in a series of bomb explosions that rips apart a glass and cardboard set erected in what looks like a giant tank, the girl disappears into the deep.
By the time she resurfaces in Canada, the hero is all set to marry the daughter (Priyanka Chopra) of a filthy rich pharmaceutical magnate (Kabir Bedi) who is in cahoots with the cross-border terrorists. It is a part of the spy's job: that is the only way he can get to the bottom of the conspiracy. The Kashmiri belle returns to haunt him with the selfsame wedding song she had sung on the night of their abrupt separation. The hero is torn between duty and love…
This Rs 55-crore extravaganza is a complete waste of effort. If Anil Sharma's Gadar - Ek Prem Katha was a drastic distortion of the past, The Hero is a mindless mauling of the present. All that the film proffers, apart from an overdose of wanton wisecracks on Pakistan, Islam and Muslims, are tiresome action scenes, cross-border chases and pursuits across ski slopes.
The pop patriotic baloney ends on a train hijacked across the Alps by the Pakistani desperadoes. The hero stops them in their track but is, in the bargain, rendered immobile for two years by the radioactive material unleashed by the dying ISI chief. He takes two long years to recover. Our guess is the poor viewer will take much longer than that to get over the onslaught of The Hero.