Did Toofaan leave a storm for all the Fans?
With his latest Amazon Prime Toofaan, Rakeysh Omprakash Mehra enters the sports world for the second time. While Farhan Akhtar played the famed Olympic runner in his 2013 film Bhaag Milkha Bhaag, the director’s Toofaan enters the boxing ring. In an early scene, master instructor Nana Prabhu (Paresh Rawal) advises Aziz Ali – a guy with amazing energy and extraordinary speed but woefully deficient in technique — that the ring must be his home.
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Stars in the film Toofaan.
- Farhan Akhtar
- Paresh Rawal
- Mrunal Thakur
- Hussain Dalal
- Mohan Agashe
- Vijay Raaz
- Supriya Pathak
- Darshan Kumar
Rakeysh Omprakash Mehra is the director of the film Toofaan.
Farhan Akhtar’s performance as ‘Toofaan the new Muhammad Ali’ is absolutely believable, both as a novice who learns quickly and as a despondent warhorse.
Story
After falling in love with a virtuous doctor Ananya, Aziz Ali alias Ajju Bhai (Farhan Akhtar), a street ruffian, debt collector, and minion of a criminal overlord, his life transforms suddenly (Mrunal Thakur). She challenges him to make a decision. Is he a fan of Ajju Wasooli Bhai or Aziz Ali, a well-known boxer?
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Review
Ali (Akhtar) is a criminal from the Mumbai neighborhood of Dongri who specializes in extortion and debt collection, often using violent means, but believes that boxing would help him become a more powerful thug. He travels to Prabhu, who is first hesitant to coach Ali because he is a Muslim from Dongri. However, the coach ultimately relents.
Prabhu’s resentment of the community originates from the loss of his young wife in a terror assault, which left his little daughter Ananya unharmed. Despite his close drinking friend Vinay (Mohan Agashe) emphasizing over and again that this cannot be true, he persists in his belief that all Muslims are terrorists. But Prabhu’s thinking has become so rigid that he refuses to order Chinese food from a Muslim restaurant!
Years later, Ananya (Mrunal Thakur), a doctor working at a charity hospital for the underprivileged and needy, has a dramatic meeting with Ali when he walks in with a cut on his head. When she discovers that he was involved in a scuffle, she kicks him out.
Toofaan is sometimes stupid and formulaic, with Ali winning the boxing bout after the boxing fight and finally gaining Ananya’s attention and heart. It doesn’t take a Sherlock Holmes to figure out where the narrative will end up. However, a second completely unexpected tragedy feels unnecessary and appears to have been created to strengthen Prabhu’s resolve.
Toofaan’s canvas is cluttered with too many concerns. The story of roughly 160 minutes, written by Anjum Rajabali and Vijay Maurya, looks like a drag. Editing has been abandoned, with some sequences running on indefinitely.
A love story between Ali and Ananya, a father-daughter connection, many tear-jerkers, and various songs all serve to undermine the basic storyline, and the boxing arena begins to appear hazy.
Movies like Chak De India and Dhangal excelled in this category because they were focused. Still, Toofaan veers towards the excessive and frequently utilizes the emotional card to keep us involved.
Mehra, on the other hand, has assembled a fantastic cast. Akhtar excels as the Dongri ‘Dada’ and then as a mature lover, husband, and parent. His transformative journey is enthralling. Thakur is charming as a vivacious girl with an infectious grin and cheerful glow. At the same time, Rawal and Agashe perform their roles with remarkable conviction.
Toofaan is a terribly diluted version of its previous self in its third hour, which dilutes the overall effect of the picture.
A rags-to-riches narrative is certain to make you cry, and it’s even better when the rag-wearing guy is a Hindi-speaking, slum-dwelling Indian. If you’re still wondering, consider the eight-time Oscar winner ‘Slumdog Millionaire.’
Rakeysh Omprakash Mehra’s latest sports drama ‘Toofaan’ continues the trend of cinematic revisionism.
The movie surely seemed like they tried to make an Indian version of Rocky, with some different cinematic rather than copy and pasting the whole idea. Sorry, Sylvester Stallone! We let Rocky down.
Aziz is introduced to the great Muhammad Ali films by a good-hearted Parsi gym owner in the neighborhood. ‘Boxing or bhaigiri main Yahi farak hai.’ Boxing is a sport that requires skill, discipline, and patience, as well as strength,’ he adds. Recognizing his talent and the skilled instruction he needs, Aziz is referred to a well-known boxing coach, Nana Prabhu (Paresh Rawal). The Dadar veteran suspects a Muslim from Dongri with a shady past but decides to take him under his wing. He even gives him the title ‘Toofaan’ (unstoppable storm). Still, this near-perfect coach-protege connection deteriorates when things become personal.
Forbidden love, blatant discrimination, communal harmony, the creation of a boxer, and the redemption of a disgraced athlete… Toofaan tries to take many pathways at the same time. As a result, the fictional story feels like a mash-up of numerous films you may have watched previously. Mukkabaaz, Sultan, and Ghulam.
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Toofaan sees Rakeysh Omprakash Mehra reunite with his Bhaag Milkha Bhaag crew — Farhan Akhtar and Shankar Ehsaan-Loy — and one can only expect fireworks.
What you get is a standard tale delivered in an overly simplistic manner. Toofaan is an unusual combination of surrendering to and breaking preconceptions, with a few meaningless punches, a few strong hits, a lot of avoiding the opponent, and finally tiring out the atmosphere.
The film’s best points lie around its simple and realistic setting, the coach-protégé relationship, and the confrontation over civic speech. Surprisingly, these sequences are trimmed short, and emotions are suppressed to keep the plot rolling. The tale seems to want to dig into religious tolerance, empathy, and discrimination, yet it only scratches the surface.
Ananya thinks that you always have a choice. It is difficult to remove oneself from the world into which you were born and upgrade. The film’s protagonist accomplishes everything without blinking, and you want to follow his trip, inner battle, and boxing talent. However, the emphasis switches to a traditional interfaith love tale, society scrutiny, parental wrath, and boxing as a prolonged highlight.
Paresh Rawal delivers the picture in its best moments by simply glancing at his misunderstood fighter. He and Dr. Mohan Agashe demonstrate how skilled performers can transcend a basic screenplay. Mrunal Thakur does her character in a straightforward, sincere manner. Characters who do not wallow in self-pity or try to be someone they are not stand out. Aziz confesses openly, “Boxing mein jo Foda fodi hai, Woh Kareeb hai apne.”
