Sanak movie review: Vidyut Jammwal, Rukmini Maitra star in a lacklustre action-thriller

2.5/5

Story: 

Sanak revolves around an MMA coach Vivaan (Vidyut Jammwal), who tries to save hostages including his wife Anshika (Rukmini Maitra) from a hospital under siege. The attack is masterminded by the terrorist Saju (Chandan Roy Sanyal). Neha Dhupia is also seen in a pivotal role.

Review: 

All’s well that ends well! The same can be said for Sanak, but not without a good dose of predictability and bad acting. The film opens to the lead couple, where Anshika (Maitra) is learning self-defence from her husband Vivaan (Jammwal). The duo then indulges in a mushy romance, a dynamic that does not look natural, but comes across as forceful acting. It will make you fast forward the film to the end instantly.

Anshika then gets sick, which lands her in a hospital. On the day of her discharge, the hospital comes under attack by the terrorists and the panic, negotiation and merciless killings start.

In the beginning, the action-thriller takes time to introduce all the main players. While the portrayal of Neha’s ACP Jayati Bhargav looks appealing in the first scene, she’s excluded from the rest of the story.

The action sequences begin and never stop, which is expected of a Vidyut Jammwal’s film. Each kick, punch, and gunfire seem natural. However, a sequence shot in a physiotherapy room of the hospital looks forceful and pointless.

Maitra, a well-known name in the Bengali industry, fails to impress the audience in her Bollywood debut. The act put up by the gorgeous actress seems insistent at a lot of the places, except at the end, where she gets to showcase her action techniques for a couple of seconds.

Sanyal as Saju starts off with some impressive acts and snappy one-liners like “Time to tango” just before he takes down the whole hospital, and ‘Death by 5 cuts’ when he threatens to kill Anshika.

One of the scenes which is highly misleading is when a peon of the hospital tries to defuse the bomb, while a 12-year-old kid casually takes the wirecutter from his hand and cuts the right wire because he has been trained by playing video games.

The film is trying to make an impressive watch with a story where a common man becomes a hero to save the people. While the overall idea behind the story is appealing, it's the execution that makes the entire experience lacklustre.

Verdict:

Sanak fails to hold the concentration of the audience, mainly for its plot. The highlights of the entire film are the well-choreographed action sequences. The happy background score and the formulaic happy ending make it a one time watch.