Movie Reviews

The Hero - Love Story of A Spy

Producer: Time Movies - Dhirajlal Shah, Pravin Shah
Director: Anil Sharma
Starring: Sunny Deol, Preity Zinta, Priyanka Chopra, Amrish Puri, Kabir Bedi, Rajpal Yadav
Release Date – April 11, 2003

SYNOPSIS -  After a superhit Gadar, director Anil Sharma and actor Sunny Deol come together one more time for another patriotic flick – ‘The Hero’. The film, based on the Indo-Pak tensions and terrorism, is not a period drama like the duo’s last film but a modern day spy thriller.

The film has Sunny Deol playing an army intelligence officer Arun Khanna, who is deputed by the Indian Secret Service Agency RAW at the Kashmir border under an assumed name of Major Ravi Khanna.

Major Khanna’s aim is to get information regarding terrorist activities across the border. To this end Major comes to a village called Kupwada in Kashmir and sets up his spy network.

Here, Major Khanna meets a beautiful girl Reshma (Preity Zinta) who is actually a Hindu whose parents were killed in a terrorist attack on the village. Her Muslim neighbors Yusuf Khan and his wife have brought her up like their own daughter.

Reshma becomes a part of Major Khanna’s network and takes training in spying. But during the process she falls in love with Major.

Major too is drawn towards Reshma because of her qualities and her innocence but because of his duty towards his country. However, he is forced to send her across the border to Pakistan as a maidservant in Colonel Hidayatulla's (Deep Dhillon) house.

Once on Pakistan, Reshma comes to know the ISI’s nefarious plans to acquire a nuclear bomb. And by the time her true identity is exposed she manages to come back to her village with the important information.

Impressed by Reshma’s bravado and patriotism Major Khanna expresses his love to her and proposes to marry her. While Major Khanna and Reshma are getting engaged on the ship, a speedboat loaded with RDX, sent by Colonel Hidayatulla and company, blows up the ship.

In the accident, Reshma falls into the river and is swept along by the current to Lahore, where a Muslim boy rescues her.

Presuming Reshma to be dead Major Khanna avenges by killing Colonel Hidayatulla. He then begins to search for the ISI head Isaq Khan (Amrish Puri). Major’s search leads him to Canada.

In the meantime, Reshma too is in Canada, and her legs are being treated by Shayna (Priyanka Chopra), who is the daughter of a fundamentalist by the name of Zakaria (Kabir Bedi).

So far Ravi Khanna and Reshma had thought of each other as dead but Reshma comes to know that Ravi Khanna is alive and is in Canada itself.

To get his hands on Zakaria, Ravi traps Shayna and pretends to be in love with her. But he comes to know about Reshma on the day of his marriage.

Now the question is will Major be able to expose Isaq and Zakaria’s plans before the world. And will Major and Reshma ever reunite?

I'm not a big Sunny Deol fan but do appreciate his acting.  I know the movie was another India vs Pakistan war type of movie.  The movie didn't get great reviews but the performances did.  So I decided to give the film a chance since a lot of good films were not releasing earlier because of the strike.

As I said earlier, Sunny Deol is an awesome actor.  I just don't go and rush to see his films.  He's still good looking despite the weight gain and is known to be one of the worse dancers in Bollywood.  His acting does make up for that.  He does a good job again in Hero where he is known to be an action hero.

The person who takes the lime light is no other than Preity Zinta.  Honestly, I thought her role would be just another song and dance number but I was wrong.  Preity plays a very pivotal role in the film and outshines everyone.  She deserves a lot more recognition of her acting than what she is signing for.  In addition, she's also an underrated dancer.  She dances gracefully in the movie.  Her facial expressions are so real that you feel her character and cry with her each time.

Priyanka does average in her debut.  The movie was so focus on Sunny and Preity that I almost forgot she was in the film.  She looks amazing.  Maybe her next film "Andaaz," she will have a better role.

Overall, I enjoy the movie.  It was much better than what the critics said it would be.  The second half slows down a bit and drags in some scenes.  However, Preity makes the movie worth watching and you will want to see what happens in the end.

7.5 out of 10

NiCKi           

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