A Gentleman Movie Review

In the flourishing genre of Indian spy movies, where Defence Intelligence units are code named by a series of inventive acronyms, ‘A Gentleman’ is probably the most unbelievable of the lot. A gruff Colonel (Suniel Shetty) heads ‘Unit X’, the agency that our hero has been working in for more than a decade. During this time, the ‘enemy’ has switched from being the rogue nation of Pakistan, to China; to its nefarious business and military deals to undermine Indian autonomy.

Agent Rishi (Sidharth Malhotra) has developed a conscience and finds that all the killing in his job keeps him awake at night. He wants to retire, but the Colonel dismisses the notion and is always threatening and blackmailing him. Finally, Rishi escapes to freedom by changing his identity to that of a corporate executive called Gaurav in Miami. There he lives the good suburban life with a lovely new home and a spacious car. A girl called Kavya (Jacqueline Fernandez) finds him nice, but too tame for her taste. She would like a man who takes more risks, and is less of a conformist. Little does she know of his past, until circumstances reveal them to her, and then, in a second, she is all turned on; her briefest clothing and her raunchiest poses in exhibition mode.

But such is the non linear structure of the script, we do not get to savour the relationship that develops between the two. One moment we are in Miami with Gaurav and Kavya, the next with Rishi in Bangkok, killing men and looking for hard disks and secret files. Later, the location is Mumbai, and then, still later, Goa, with murders taking place galore.

Jet setting is all very well, and the action is dramatic and the stunts and fight scenes excellent. But at some point, it all gets too much and we lose the trail, the scent and the plot. What we are left with are a couple of amusing scenes, like when the ‘honey trap’ that agent Rishi has set for an Indian official has to be changed at the last moment, because there are indications that the man is gay. So Rishi decides to fill in himself for a bit of same-sex flirting, something that he appears to be surprisingly good at.

The second half of the film is a little more focussed than the first. But it is still not very entertaining. For all its high production values, ‘A Gentleman’ is a bit of a bore.

About The Author

Ajit Duara