Rashtra Kavach Om Film Review: A Poorly Written Film That Aditya Roy Kapur Cannot Save

'Rashtra Kavach: Om' has many problems. Among some, it is poorly written. The narrative and the screenplay is disjointed, the background score repetitive & generic, & action-sequences poorly directed

New Delhi: 'Rashtra Kavach: Om' opens with what looks like a video-game action sequence where no one and nothing feel real. It looks like Aditya Roy Kapur is introduced like a player in Call of Duty, or some other firing guns and shooting people video game.

The first-fifteen minutes of the film has every element to displease the audience. For example:

• The slow camera movement panning Aditya Roy Kapur's muscular body so as to introduce to us another action-hero in Bollywood that feels totally weird and out-of-place.
• Prakash Raj and Ashutosh Rana's cringeworthy dialogues make the look and the feel of the film intense. But, we have all seen and learnt from many ensemble films, especially those from the Dharma banner that having a strong supporting cast does not make a good film. In fact, it's even harder trying to see them do their best to save a disappointing script.

'Rashtra Kavach: Om' has many problems. Among some, it is poorly written. The narrative and the screenplay is disjointed, the background score repetitive and generic, and action-sequences( which should have saved the film) poorly directed and choreographed.

Let's elaborate these with examples from the film. In the opening sequence, Aditya Roy Kapur suddenly stops and begins staring in an extremely weird manner at the two people who he is sent to capture. From a deadly agent with top-notch skills, this is just not expected.

Then the narrative suddenly shifts to another landscape wherein Om( Aditya Roy Kapur) who has been shot in the head lies in a safe house in a state of memory loss. His attendant is a nurse/doctor/fellow-agent and lead actress Sanjana Sanghi whose mission is to help him get better.

In a commendable sequence, where Om's safe house location is intercepted by enemies, Sanjana performs action sequences and saves the hero who needs no saving even in the state of memory loss. Om's body memory is even more stronger as he is recovering from a bullet wound in the head.

Why this is worth-mentioning is because of this action scene where Om literally bangs his torso into an man who shakes from the force like a feather hit against a rock. It is almost laughable…

The narrative does grow on you when the backstory of Om is revealed. Everything is suddenly pacing fast and Ashutosh Rana and Prakash Raj as his senior officers in R&AW and a complex family history does bring in a watchable element but everything is repeatedly blown apart with bad screenplay and background score.

Dialogues like 'Maine apne pure medical career mein aisa case nahi dekha', 'ma ke dil ke chakr mein main ek soldier ke dimag par zor nahi dal sakta' etc. make scenes that have a lot of intensity comic.

Suddenly, Jackie Shroff's cameo is revealed as a traitor father of Om who is actually Rishi in childhood. Jackie plays a nuclear scientist who develops a nuclear shield/ kavach that can counter any nuclear attack. Jackie is more interested in money and leaves Rishi hanging when Ashutosh Rana, Jackie's brother Ashutosh adopts Rishi as his own son.

This battle about the nation's security then becomes embroiled in a family drama to an extent that it almost looks like the nation/ patriotic film genre is only an excuse to talk about this petty family drama.

Flashbacks to a traumatizing past where Rishi sees his father( Jackie) getting kidnapped( who actually plans his own kidnapping), Sanjana Sanghi's character name ( Kavya) being revealed almost 45 minutes into the film, a nonsensical dance number suddenly after the interval, and poorly directed action-sequences that feel like everyone including the characters in the film are watching a live show of Om battling goons are examples of everything that the film does wrong on so many levels.

Recurrent themes of nationhood, patriotism, loyalty etc. are brutally fired in the audience's face to an extent that everything feels predictable, even the twist in the climax where we know for sure that the rat in Om's mission to bring back Kavach( nuclear shield) to India is within Om's team.

The action-sequences do get better in the second half of the film but so many open threads and concepts remain unaddressed. Then, the biggest put off happens in the alleged climax of the film where two members of Om's team almost get themselves martyred despite being trained agents themselves to keep Om's anger and the zeal to finish the mission alive.

I mean why would two agents who were earlier fighting combat suddenly be on their knees and on the mercy of a middle-aged Prakash Raj who only has a gun to shoot them down with. Two trained agents would within seconds disarm such a man with zero-experience in any combat.

Such unanswered threads even take away the little bit of freshness the film offers when we meet arch nemesis Jackie way before the expected climax of the film.

Especially towards the climax of the film, the screenplay feels way too stretched and draggy. It's almost like Om, like the audience, is so bored and utterly exhausted by the film that he finishes it off by simply shooting Jackie( his on-screen father) without even a single fight. Where we didn't expect a fight, we see Om beating a physically unfit Murthy ( Prakash Raj's character).

The film closes with an equally questionable closing credits song.

In all, 'Rashtra Kavach: Om' is so poorly written and directed that even it's earnest cast including Aditya Roy Kapur, Sanjhana Sanghi, Ashutosh Rana and Prakash Raj coundn't have saved the film from its designated failure.