Crakk – Jeetegaa Toh Jeeyegaa Review: Confounding to the core!

CRAKK JEETEGA TO JEEYEGA

Director- Aditya Datt

Cast- Vidyut Jamwal, Arjun Rampal, Ankit Mohan, Amy Jackson, Jamie Lever and Nora Fatehi

Platform of Release- Theatres

Rating:

By Jyothi Venkatesh

The film opens with Siddharth Dixit alias Siddhu (Vidyut Jammwal), a slum dweller in Mumbai trying dangerous, life-threatening stunts on moving local trains. He leans out of the door, touches poles, climbs on the top and runs from one compartment to another like a cakewalk.

His elder brother Nihal (Ankit Mohan) had lost his life in Maidan, an underground survival sports competition, and hence the parents don’t want Siddhu to follow in his footsteps. But Siddhu continues to film himself doing these dangerous stunts, often getting caught by the police, and eventually makes it to Maidaan and from the streets of Mumbai, is soon smuggled to a sports arena in Poland.

Siddhu now has to fight with Maidan’s showrunner and formidable champion Dev (Arjun Rampal), and equally skilled entrants from other countries. It’s much later in the story that he stumbles upon the bitter truth of some foul play in his brother’s death, and his motive shifts from just winning the competition to unravelling the truth about Nihal.

The worst thing about the film and its story is that Datt has co-written it with Rehan Khan, Sarim Momin and Mohinder Pratab Singh in such a way that it doesn’t let you stay in that moment and keeps moving from one point to another without getting the answers to the previous riddle.

Also read: All India Rank Review: Tepid and slow-paced!

As far as the performances are concerned, Vidyut excels in the muscle ripping sequences though he struggles in the expression and dialogue department. Arjun Rampal plays the antagonist, who bears solid substance and puts up a great show, while Amy Jackson as police officer Patricia commands a good screen presence though you get distracted by her dubbed Hindi lines, especially some often out of sync.

Nora is used as a mere prop and even though her character arc takes the story forward, she doesn’t get ample scope at all to perform. Jamie Lever’s one-liners and punches peppered cleverly offer the much-needed comic relief, though they are not part of the coherent script or plotline.

The screenplay of the movie is strictly below average and there are many bland moments where you may feel either sleepy or bored. The movie also looks a little stretched. Direction by Aditya Datt is just about mediocre to average and let down badly by an non existing plotline, the film is confounding to the core.