Director Siddharth Anand, who got his footing in Bollywood directing fluffy Rom-Com such as Salaam Namaste, Ta Ra Rum Pum, and Bachna Ae Haseeno, has been slowly transitioning towards action films in recent years. Here he reteams with Hirthik Roshan, lead star of his previous film Bang Bang, along with co-star Tiger Shroff, the star of his next film Rambo, to make War, a lavishly produced, wall-to-wall imitation of the Mission Impossible franchise, from which this film finds plenty to plagiarise from, lifting everything from the title sequence and theme music to even the set pieces. There are even some shots straight from John Woo’s action filmography, including a botched Face/Off nod.
Had Anand done just some tweaking (and perhaps playful winking), he may have ended up with a decent spoof of the aforementioned films. Sadly War is made with far too much straight-faced sincerity. All of the cinematic borrowing could be forgiven had the story made even any sense. Sadly, it seems the producers spent the bulk of their budget and energy on globe-trotting, framing cool shots, executing competent fight scene and perhaps the rest on the personal training of both Roshan and Shroff (who are incredibly fit), thereby neglecting to pay any attention whatsoever to the script itself. The result is a film that is stripped off any logic, and a plot that doesn’t make a lick of sense.
Ultimately, War is little more than a slickly made rip-off of the Mission Impossible, James Bond, and John Woo films, and needless to say, one is better off watching any of those superior films.
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