Why Did You Do This, Priyanka?

We Can Be Heroes(Netflix)

Starring YaYa Gosselin, Priyanka  Chopra

Directed by  Robert Rodriguez

Rating: * ½ 

After seeing  this juvenile  mishmash  of  the super-hero film about extra-cocky kids  who  should be going to a  school—and a finishing school at that—spend all their time trying to ape their  super-hero parents, I sat in stunned silence observing a two-minute silence  for Priyanka Chopra’s international career.

 Is this  what it has come to? One  of my  favourite contemporary Indian  actresses has forgotten  how to act!  Not that  We Can Be Heroes  gives her much scope to do anything except act bossy  in tight executive  suits and a hairstyle that suggests  she is not quite  with the times. Priyanka plays  Ms Granada .

 I am  not  sure  what she  is  supposed to be doing except lording over the  kids  of the super-heroes wagging her wll-manicured fingers at them and threatening  them with house arrest if they don’t obey her. If Oliver Twist  was a  miniature super-hero Ms  Granada would be the  owner  of  the orphanage , the one  whom Oliver asks for  more gruel.How cruel.

 The kids in  We Can Be  Heroes  don’t ask  Ms Granada  for anything. They slip out of confinement to rescue  their fathers  from an alien invasion, and….yawn!  Really,  this is  all  so predicable, hamfisted and uninspired. I looked for a punchline to  the stretched-out gag.  Turned out, director Robert Rodriguez (he  has worked on a number of underage super-hero escapades) has no other plans. It’s all  about empowering the  kids.

It’s also  about saving your super-hero dads. The  super-hero kids all have  certain power. Twins  called  Fast Forward  and Rewind have  the power to move time in  different  directions. This is as clever as the film gets. The  heroine, no  not Priyanka Chopra , but an 10-year old girl called  Missy Moreno has no  special powers, and that is her special power. Quite like the  film. It has  no special powers.