When we hear the words “superhero” and “film”, countless number of movies come gushing to our minds along with expectations. A strong storyline, the plot, characters, music and majorly high end visual effects – all these can be termed as the mantra to make any superhero film successful. So far, the Bollywood industry has witnessed two superhero flicks Ra.One or Krrish, and if not mind blowing they had decent VFX work.
Now, there’s one more superhero film being added in this kitty and that’s ‘A Flying Jatt’. Directed by Remo D’Souza (F.A.L.T.U, ABCD, ABCD 2) A Flying Jatt has been promoted as a kid friendly, comical movie which will have heavy use of VFX to support the Flying Jatt’s and his nemesis Laka’s powers. However, when visual effects which are used to enhance a film starts becoming prominent to the audience’s eyes, it’s safe to say that it’s a bad VFX job done. And the same goes for A Flying Jatt.
The movie starts of with the animated song ‘Chal Chaliye’ showcasing how the cutting of trees leads to the destruction of everything from forests to cities, also setting the plotline for the film as we observe Flying Jatt (Tiger Shroff) saving the tree to resurrect everything. Surely, as promised by Remo D’Souza the movie is filled with comical events and dialogues which don’t seem like forced ones. The plot of the film is quite simple; an industrialist Malhotra’s (Kay Kay Menon) wants to acquire a land which the landlady (Amrita Singh) refuses to give as his factories are the main cause of the growing pollution in the country. This leads to Malhotra resorting to evil methods of trying to capture it by hiring Raka (Nathan Jones) who encounters Aman (Tiger Shroff), the landlady’s son and martial arts teacher.
How Raka and Aman get their powers? They both get struck by lightning and attain different kinds of superpowers. Aman aka Flying Jatt has the power to heal himself, absorb the content of whatever he touches, can fly like Superman, has the superhuman ability to move at great speeds like Quicksilver and has the blessing of the Sikh god. On the other hand, the antagonist Raka is made of pollution and gets his energies from the pollution around him; be it in water, land or air.
Not delving much into the storyline, it’s safe to say that the film has a decent story emphasising on the protecting the environment, which has been brought to life successfully by the actors. Amrita Singh played the role of a strong headed woman and has delivered her role brilliantly. Kay Kay Menon and Gaurav Pandey (Rohit, brother of Aman) also managed to pull off their part, with The Mad Max: Fury Road powerlifting champion and retired wrestler Nathan Jones’ madness as Raka was well executed. Talking about the superhero Tiger Shroff, with his flexible body and his prowess as a dancer, managed to do justice to his role of being a martial arts teacher who is a scared soul in reality. As for Jacqueline Fernandez (Kirti, Aman’s love interest) was just an add-on to the cast.
As for the VFX, being a superhero film, we were expecting visual effects playing a big role in film, however what we didn’t expect was the low quality of it. Seems like the filmmakers failed to learn from the teaser reviews. India’s one of the leading VFX studio Prime Focus has delivered the VFX and DI for the movie.
There were major VFX flaws throughout the film. The scene when Aman and Raka get their superpowers and Raka flies away, the running and flying sequences of Flying Jatt, the breaking of glass, the location seen in the romantic song ‘Toota jo Koi Tara’ all seemed quite artificial. The biggest letdown was the final battle which took place in the space, something which cannot be ignored. Seems like the VFX team forgot to remove the blue chroma screen in one of the office scenes of Malhotra, wherein on one side the blue chroma screen and on the other clouds could be noticed.
Though the film majorly had unacceptable VFX work, there were parts which had been well executed as well. When Raka comes out of the factory waste, the water fight between Flying Jatt and Raka, the black polluted air coming out of Raka’s body, the burning of houses were some of the good VFX parts in the film. One major scene was the first superhero moment of Flying Jatt wherein he goes to fight off against a bunch of terrorists. The scene seemed inspired by the X-Men: Days of Future Past Quicksilver scene wherein Flying Jatt also does few things just like him (let’s remember he was shown all superhero films by his mom and Rohit). Apart from him tasting the milk shot, the rest of the slow motion has been beautifully delivered.
Along with VFX, animation was also used to tell the backstory of Aman’s father and the relation of 12 o’clock with Sikhs. Overall the film has three animated sequences; the Chal Chaliye song in the intro and these two backstories. Unlike the VFX shots, the animated sequences were one of the highlights of the film created using simple 2D stop motion animation.
Whether it was the low VFX budget or time constraint, in this high tech era, the audience are more aware than before and might not accept anything that’s showed to them. If there’s a sequel in talks, we would highly recommend them to give importance to the visual effects and set aside the budget / time accordingly. Directed by Remo D’Souza and produced by Ekta and Shobha Kapoor, A Flying Jatt hits theatres today.
Verdict: When it comes to the superhero genre, though being a low budget film, A Flying Jatt comes out with a message to save our mother Earth, and if the major VFX flaws are ignored, it is a good comical watch for the kids and adults alike.
“Everything has an alternative except Mother Earth,” Remo D’Souza