If merciless and relentless crunching of bones gets your adrenalin pumping, this film is designed for you.
‘Brothers’, an official remake of the 2011 film, ‘Warrior’, is about the Fernandes family that loves a special kind of sport, Mixed Martial Arts. And as we know by now, this sport means no stopping at anything when it comes to beating your opponent to a fine pulp. So no prizes for guessing what the always frowning Fernandes’ do to fill their free time or whenever they are in need some extra cash.
Gary Fernandes (Jackie Shroff) is an excellent street fighter but a terrible family man and alcoholism is his problem. His long suffering wife Maria (Shefali Shah) is trying to raise the sons David (Akshay Kumar) and Monty (Sidharth Malhotra) almost single handedly. Tragedy strikes and Gary is sent behind bars. David is estranged from his brother. Now all grown up, David is a school teacher married to Jenny (Jacqueline Fernandes) and struggling to bear the hospital expenses of his ailing six year old daughter. He wants to get back to street fighting, while Monty is already a sort of a champ in the field.
The first half of the film is an emotional narration of the background story, explaining why the three men share such a passionate love hate relationship. There are some moving scenes, like the one where Gary comes to ask David for forgiveness and manages to catch a glimpse of his grand-daughter for the first time. Or the one where younger David welcomes Monty into their home. The one scene at the graveyard is quite memorable too. But surprisingly consistency is an issue here as some other scenes come packed with a heavy dose of melodrama, lack logic and move at a painfully slow pace.
The second half is where all the action literally is. The two brothers vie for the MMA championship and end up facing each other in the ring at one point, ending in a fantastic finale. The film actually belongs to the two brothers. Akshay Kumar and Sidharth Malhotra have literally put their blood and sweat into the characters they play. A well-deserved applause for these two actors, who not only look convincing as brothers but also as the mean machines that they turn out to be. Action is a familiar ground for Akshay, but even off the ring he plays the role of a helpless father and helpless son effortlessly. Sidharth goes about doing his job with a lot of sincerity and dedication. Even when he is not fighting, he is subtle and discerning as he plays wronged son, who’s outwardly quiet but with a lot of rage inside him. Jackie Shroff is excellent in parts, but tends to go a tad overboard in some parts. But overall a good, endearing performance. Jumping jack-queline (watch the film to know why) is pleasant to look at and does best of her limited role.
The trying-hard-to-look-important Kiran Kumar (who plays Peter Braganza, a former MMA champ), the commentator-with-verbal-diarrhea-but-making-absolutely-no-sense Raj Zutshi etc. get in the way.
A background score with lower decibel levels and smarter dialogues might have made this a better film. But still a good one time watch, especially if you are a fight junkie.