Ek Tha Tiger

Starring Salman Khan and Katrina Kaif

Star rating: **

When the trailers first released for this film, it was hotly anticipated. Despite it being a Salman Khan and Katrina Kaif - a pairing not seen in ages, the songs were hitting the airwaves with aplomb. 'Mashallah' and 'Laapata' were featured in the trailers and the prologue sequences showed Salman running through the streets of Istanbul calling himself a 'tiger'. The music added to the hype and the film was being described as an action thriller. The few scenes that were being shown in the trailer, the chemistry between Salman and Katrina was being shown to be a mystery and left more for the audience to discover.

Tiger (Salman Khan) is an intelligence officer who acts as an assassin hunting down rogue agents all around the world taking on one assignment after the other. On his next mission, Tiger is sent to Dublin to befriend Zoya (Katrina Kaif), a part time housekeeper for an Indian science professor. He is told to keep an eye on the pair to try and discover what the scientist is working on. Whilst on this mission, despite his fellow spy warning him not to, he begins to fall for Zoya. He soon finds out that Zoya is Pakistani spy implanted to do the same mission as him but for the enemy country, Pakistan. He decides to follow his heart and aims to start a new life with Zoya and fight for his love.

This film is touted as an action thriller but i am hard pressed to find it a thriller. Following the lines of 'Bodyguard' and 'Wanted', Salman Khan is set up as the action hero but it is sad to say that despite the obligatory topless scene, he is showing his age. His one-liners come across as cliched and the action scenes seem to be solely made using CGI and stuntmen. The action sequences show clear inspiration from Hollywood from the likes of James Bond and the Bourne Trilogy. Katrina Kaif for her part does her best at a role that she has done before countless times in the first half of the film. When she is revealed as the spy, her dialogues seem to vanish out of the window and she goes back to being the pretty face. It is a shame as she really could have had a bigger role playing the spy. Aditya Chopra is playing with rough waters, releasing so close to the Indian independance day and playing with the India-Pakistan relationship. The enmity between the two countries does make uncomfortable viewing and it is worrying that both countries are never shown to find common ground in the end.

A one time wonder i'm afraid and it sad to say this but Salman really was a 'Ek THA Tiger'. A lot more could have been done with this film with a younger hero and Katrina should have been given a bigger part in the film.