Rustom Trailer: The Re-Invention Of Akshay Kumar….Again!

For my money and time Akshay Kumar is the  finest star-actor package in Bollywood .Whether lifting the inspiring Airlift to another level with his performance or fooling around in Housefull 3, Akshay is the epitome of sparkling spontaneity.

Rustom is going to be Akshay’s  third release this year. Rest assured, there is no sign of tiredness in his screen presence  as he embarks on a new journey as a naval officer in Mumbai 1959 who returns home to find his  beloved wife in the arms of another man(presumably his best friend).

The story has been done earlier  with Sunil Dutt in Yeh Raaste Hain Pyar Ke a  1963 thriller directed by R KNayyar(the late actress Sadhana’s husband).

Dutt-–God bless his soul—had the same transparency in his personality ,a kind of spiritual purity that Akshayprojects so fluently in his best performances. This is the story of an upright man  and a full-blown patriot who kills his best friend for love. When the actual case had happened in 1959 it shook Mumbai’s beau monde exposing the sordid truth behind  the most immaculately perfect marriage.

Rustom captures the flavor and fervor of  the crime-of-passion  with flair and energy. The trailer is cut to project the drama as a  thriller. The rapidfire editing suggest a tremendous moral upheaval in the universe that we are compelled to enter.While Ileana as the unfaithful wife is  as fragile and tremulous as Leela Naidu in Yeh RaasteHain Pyar Ke, Ileana lacks Ms Naidu’s luminous beauty.She is  more about the well-groomed wig and the crimson lip gloss than the character.

In fact the entire vast supporting cast in Rustom—ranging from the very skilled Pavan Malhotra and SachinKhedekar to the very pouty Esha Gupta(playing the murdered man’s vengeful sister)– are mere shadows in the horizon.

Make no mistake . This is another vehicle to flaunt Akshay Kumar’s huge stardom. He exudes a sense of unassuming power in  his gloriously author-backed role creating more dramatic impact in 2 minutes of Rustom than we are likely to  experience in 3 hours of Sultan.

Gulzar attempted the same story in  a different setting. In Achanak Vinod Khanna was an  army man who returns home to find his beloved wife involved with another man.In Gulzar’s film the cuckolded husband(played by VinodKhanna) strangles his wife. Akshay’s  Rustom Pavri guns down the man who dares to sleep with his wife.

Quite clearly, Akshay has killed it.