Heads Of State, Priyanka Chopra Saves The World, And The Film

Rating: ***

 It is indeed admirable to see Priyanka  Chopra,with or without Jonas, bring so much of her native vivacity to her part in this middling political thriller .

The kindergarten political premise of the plot is propelled by Priyanka’s perky pun-filled performance . You see,her character Noel loves puns. Her opening gambit in Bunol at the Tomatina festival(remember  Zindagi Na Milegi  where she  is  reporting  Live is, “I will ketchup  with you later.”

 Haha , clever. We  love Priyanka’s saucy (pun intended)  conduct at the start. But then she disappears from the plot as the restless narrative takes  off with the two protagonists, the  President of  the United States and the  Prime  Minister of Great(?) Britain, no less,  as they try to  dodge terrorist, bullets  and  clumsy writing(not necessarily  in that order).

 To be  fair,  John Cena  and Idris Alba are  a barrell of  fun together as the Prez and the PM, respectively. Cena especially with his childlike joy in the moment and his  often-challenged view that every person in this planet knows him, if not for his current Trump card, then as the former action star of the silver screen.

 It is  a fun character, played with the right amount of self-deprecating  humour  and a levity  that  defies the gravity  that this kind of Frederick Forsyth plotting may have gotten  trapped into.

 The  action is fun and  video-gamish all the way.The  trick of making something so silly seem fun, is to keep the irreverent momentum alive till the  end.  Admittedly the  pace slackens, when  it  tries too hard not to lose our attention .  However that  mood of a  tongue-in-cheek Tomatina festivity(rotten tomatoes and all) remains unharmed  right till the  end, largely  thanks to the fun-fuelled cast,and no thanks to the writing which is demonstrably infantile.

The two heads of the State bob like Tom and Jerry , and their mutual conflicts have more to do with their ego than any concern  for the  state of  world. The gags are  certifiably jejune  at  times.

“Don’t make that call,” warns one  HOS.

“Make that call,”  warns  the  other.

“I can’t, there is no dial tone,” says the guy on the phone.

Come on , guys.  You could have  done much better especially with so much talent and resources available.

The Prez-PM on the run theme livens when Priyanka Chopra reappears an hour into show. She sort of adds creases to the over-smooth surface in a  yarn that otherwise feels  like  an animation  film.

The characters are credibly cartoonish. They don’t  aspire to be anything else. When the big revelation happens towards the end,the cat among the pigeons, no one is surprised.  Heads Of State has no  room for surprises. It is  a tightly wound piece of cinema with a clear agenda: make it large, and make it fun while it lasts.