Dinesh Kamath's column on movie 'Khiladi 786' that was published in Newsband

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Khiladi 786 is a Bollywood action comedy film directed by Ashish R Mohan, featuring Akshay Kumar in the title role alongside Asin playing the female lead. The film is produced by Twinkle Khanna, Himesh Reshammiya and Sunil Lulla. Story is by Himesh Reshmmiya. Music is also by Himesh Reshammiya. It is produced by Eros International, HR Musik Limited and Hari Om Entertainment. The film marks the return of Akshay Kumar to his famous Khiladi film series after 12 years since he acted in Khiladi 420.

The first teaser of the film unveiled on 4 October 2012. It earned 1.5 million views in five days on YouTube, and some industry watchers expect this film to be the biggest opener of Akshay Kumar's career. The film will release today on 7 December 2012.

The film has Akshay Kumar as Bahattar Singh, Asin as Indu Tendulkar, Mithun Chakraborty as Tatya Tukaram Tendulkar, Himesh Reshammiya as Mansukh Desai, Paresh Rawal as Champak Lal, Raj Babbar as Sattar Singh and Mukesh Rishi as Ikhattar Singh. Other actors are Rajesh Khattar as Inspector Jugnu Singh, Sanjai Mishra, Johnny Lever, Bharti Singh, Gurpreet Ghuggi and Claudia Ciesla in a special appearance in song Balma.

In March 2012, it was announced that Ashish R Mohan and Himesh Reshammiya would be creating an action-comedy film starring Akshay Kumar. In April 2012, days before the release of Kumar's blockbuster Housefull 2, it was reported that the project would be titled Khiladi 786 and would mark Kumar's comeback to the Khiladi series after 12 years, the last being Khiladi 420.The film has been given an U/A certificate from the CBFC.

The filming began on 2nd June, 2012, for a 20 day schedule in Kamalistan Studios. During the first schedule of Khiladi 786, Akshay performed a dangerous stunt where he jumped from a balcony of a bungalow of about 45 feet without any cables, wires or body-doubles. The only things to soften his jump were some mattresses and card-boxes. The action sequences of the film have been provided by Jal Singh Nijjar.

The soundtrack of the film is composed by Himesh Reshammiya and the music is on Eros Music, T-Series and HR Musik. Lyrics are penned by Sameer, Shabbir Ahmed and Himesh Reshammiya. Punjab's most popular rapper, Yo Yo Honey Singh recorded the song Lonely for the film, and the song turned out to be widely popular specially amongst the youth. Many unofficial remixes to the song were made.

The film has songs like Lonely sung by Himesh Reshammiya, Yo Yo Honey Singh and Hamsika Iyer, Balma by Mynampati Sreeram Chandra and Shreya Ghoshal, Long Drive by Mika Singh, Sari Sari Raat by Himesh Reshammiya, Hookah Bar by Himesh Reshammiya, Vineet Singh and Aman Trikha, Khiladi (Title Track) by Vineet Singh, Aman Trikha, Yashraj Kapil, Alam Gir Khan and Rajdeep Chatterjee, Tu Hoor Pari by Javed Ali, Shreya Ghoshal, Chandrakala Singh and Harshdeep Kaur, Lonely (Remix) by Himesh Reshammiya, Yo Yo Honey Singh, Hamsika Iyer, Hookah Bar (Remix) by Himesh Reshammiya, Vineet Singh and Aman Trikha, Long Drive (Bhangra Mix) by Mika Singh, Balma (Remix) by Shreeram and Shreya Ghoshal and Khiladi (Remix) by Vineet Singh, Aman Trikha, Yashraj Kapil, Alam Gir Khan and Rajdeep Chatterjee.

The original Khiladi, Akshay Kumar is back after 12 years with Khiladi 786. The film has him starring as a Police officer, like in his Khiladi series before this.

Playing Taher Bahattar, Akshay is shown as making his entry in a Jeep, smashing into the gates of a dairy farm, sending the baddies flying into the air. Then three is a sequence is of Asin in a stunning black dress, dancing with Akshay to Balma which is already a favorite among fans. Tatya ‘Bhai’ Tendulkar (Mithun Chakraborthy) wants to marry off his younger sister, Induv (Asin). Enter Mansukh Desai (Himesh Reshammiya), who is a good friend of Akshay in the film and he tries to hook Bhai by introducing to him a shariff ladka for his daughter. And obviously he recommends Taher as the ideal match and in turn in his bid to look shariff, Taher dons the Police avatar to impress Bhai. How he manages to take Asin away from her elder brother is what makes the film very entertaining. The film has some very unreal shots of Akshay stomping the bonnet of a car and ripping it to pieces and then he smashes another car by slamming a bad-guy onto it.

Directed by Ashish R Mohan and written by Himesh Reshammiya, the film also stars Paresh Rawal, Raj Babbar and Johnny Lever who play important roles. The film promises to be the family entertainer that Akshay’s fans have been waiting for since Rowdy Rathore.

If you want to know the story from the angle of the character Mansukh played by Himesh Reshammiya, then the story goes like this: Born to an owner of a marriage bureau Champak Lal, Mansukh has been a complete failure ever since he has grown up and tried to help his father in their family business. All the alliances he had tried to get done have resulted in separation even before the marriage took place.

To prove his worth to his father, he takes up an unusual challenge of getting an underworld don TT bhai's spoilt brat sister Indu getting married to a cop called Bahattar Singh aka Khiladi 786 in Punjab and to add more to his problems he convinces even TT bhai to pretend as a cop but little did the over enthusiast know that Bahattar Singh, his father Sattar Singh and his uncle Ikhattar Singh were not cops but a family of conmen. The story takes a shape as the two hardcore families of two different states pretend to be policemen in front of each other and the beans from each side can be spilled anytime which can be life threatening for Mansukh.

What follows is a roller-coaster ride filled with music, romance, comedy and power packed action!

Thus Akshay Kumar who has played the title role has performed well. Himesh Reshammiya is not at all bad in the role of a Gujarati Guy Mansukh in this movie, and Paresh Rawal is hilarious as Mansukh's father Champaklal. Mithun Chakraborty has given a wonderful performance in this film. Asin as the leading lady of the film not only looks attractive but also has given a sterling performance.

Thus Khiladi 786 is a great film to watch. Do watch it. You’ll like it.