Barood (1998) Reviews

• Worst of Akshay Kumar in the late 90s

  superindrajit2011-03-15

  Akshay Kumar was failing badly in the late 90s because none of his movies were working at the box office. Starting from Lahoo Ke Do Rang(1997), he flopped all the way till Jaanwar(1999). In between, his only decent and critically acclaimed films were Angaarey(1998) and Sangharsh(1999) and sadly, these films flopped too. Barood(1998) released after Akshay's good but flop Angaarey(1998). The film was promoted as a mix of explosive action and good comedy with good songs. However, the only thing that worked in this film was the music. Barood is the typical and done to death story of Akshay Kumar who is raised by his mother Rakhee. Akshay works as a dance performer initially but he becomes a cop later. Initially, Raveena Tandon and Akshay keep arguing but after boring songs and terribly handled romantic scenes, they fall in love. Raveena's dad is played by Amrish "Mogambo" Puri who seems to love screaming and shouting as the villain. Amrish Puri is the same guy who murdered Akshay's father when he was just a child. Akshay gets framed for something he didn't do, he gets tortured in prison. After Mohan Joshi's look alike saves him, he flees from prison and starts taking his revenge. In short, this film is a typical action film with zero substance. Direction by Pramod Chakraborty is bad and it's hard to believe that this is the same guy who directed Akshay's Deedar(1992) which was much better than this. Pramod handles the romance and comedy terribly, and the action is just OK. However, the climax stunt is simply superb. However, Pramod is let down by the typical script which has the age old revenge formula. By the interval, the film becomes boring because there is barely any action in the first half and the comedy is bad. The second half picks up with more stunts but the boring dialogs are still there and the film loses steam once again. Akshay Kumar's performance was completely panned by critics and this truly is one of his wooden performances. His expressions aren't that great and he wasn't good in comedy during those days. In fact, he did a lot better in Deedar(1992). Raveen Tandon is completely wasted and she overacts terribly in some scenes. Amrish Puri continues his Mogambo act and he is getting extremely typecast. Mohan Joshi is bad and he fails to do justice to his corrupt police act. Mohnish Behl is bad as the spolit son of Mohan Joshi, he repeats his spoilt son act from Taarazu(1997) which was another bad Akshay Kumar film. Rakhee repeats her Saugandh(1991) act but she dies and her role lacks the meat. The rest provide average support. Music is the saving grace with most songs being good. The best one is Mere Saason Mein Garmi which is the title song. The set for that song is mind blowing and the choreography is awesome(it's also fresh). On the whole, Barood is another Akshay Kumar movie which failed to work at the box office. The late 90s was a complete disappointment for Akshay Kumar fans like me, only some of his movies during this period was watchable.

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• Akshay's bad days

  silvan-desouza2016-02-26

  Akshay being a playboy he was, had numerous affairs with many leading ladies before settling to Twinkle Khanna. His affair with Raveena ended in 1996 which made several films suffer, his last 2 films with Raveena were KEEMAT and BAROOD both which releaed in 1998. BAROOD was delayed for 3 years for perhaps the same reason. The film is directed by Pramod Chakravarthy who directed Akki in Deedaar(1992). The film has a standard story which was seen a lot in 80s and 90s. Nothing really worthy to speak about. Those days Akki was going through a bad phase,giving several flops, he was called a wooden actor and people only praised his action scenes which slowly were loosing their charm. BAROOD was another flop in a row. Direction is nothing great Music is okay, the title song is shot well rest are okay Akshay Kumar is nothing great as in those days, his action scenes were praised as usual Raveena Tandon plays the heroine as usual in those days Amrish Puri plays a villain again, Raakhee too is tiring playing the mother Mohinish Behl is as usual ditto for Mohan Joshi Gulshan Grover is likable.

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