Ruslaan

Ruslaan has good, stylised action. Both Aayush Sharma and Sushrii Shreya Mishraa perform their stunts well. There has been work put into it and that shows. The pre-interval scene and the climax, although predictable, deliver on the emotional front. Ruslaan's story is very routine, clichéd and basic and so are the characters. The execution is not upto the mark. Slow-motion shots literally bore you. The screenplay is extremely lousy. The plot is of convenience and suspension of disbelief is essential. The run-time is atleast 20 minutes more than what it should have been. Songs act as roadblocks in the already unevenly-paced film. Forced nationalism and forced anti-India agenda get on the nerves. It seems like we are seriously running out of conflicts for spy films.

It’s hard to believe that these cliches still exist. A hero’s sidekick, called Tabla (that’s right), who eats a lot, and cracks codes. A svelte female spy (Sushrii Shreya Mishra) who can deliver solid kicks and punches, but never gets to do anything on her own except make eyes at a bad guy. Several scenes dedicated to empty chatter about ‘desh ke liye jeena-marna’. A Chinese baddie who likes torturing people. And a lead character who keeps getting told ‘no action, only report’, because that’s what ‘RAW agents’ are apparently meant to do. But of course, heroes have to jump and thump. And make us flee.