"Even when I was younger I used to play a lot of sports and I think it comes naturally to me."
It is a known fact that cinema halls will be fully packed if it’s an Akshay Kumar/Sonakshi Sinha release on a Friday. The film, Holiday: A Soldier Never Off Duty is a remake of the 2012 Tamil feature, Thuppakki starring Vijay and Kajal Agarwal of Singham (2011) fame.
Holiday is produced by Akshay Kumar himself, under his banner ‘Hari Om Entertainment’ along with Vipul Shah’s ‘Sunshine Pictures’. The film is one of the most awaited releases of 2014 and is predicted to be a super hit.
Director of the film, A R Murugadoss, who once gave us the first 100 crore club film, Ghajini (2008), makes a comeback in Bollywood with this venture. What’s interesting is both of his films Ghajini and Holiday are remakes of his South Indian films.
The storyline of Holiday portrays Akshay aka the dare-devil of Bollywood, playing the role of Virat Bakshi, a military officer who is on holiday (as the movie title suggests) with his battalion in his home city of Mumbai.
Unknown to all, Virat is also an undercover secret Defence Intelligence Agent (DIA), trained to fight terrorists.
One day, while travelling with his friends, in an attempt to search for a lost wallet in a bus, Virat comes across something unexpected and terrifying. After the bus is bomb blasted, he quickly catches the executor. However it’s now Virat’s responsibility to bring together all the clues and locate the sleeper cell that plans to bring terror to his home city, which is closest to his heart.
The star cast of the film is the super hit jodi of Akshay Kumar and Sonakshi Sinha. Interestingly this is their fifth film together and the pair has hardly ever disappointed the audience. Govinda who is playing a cameo in the film is in a totally different character unlike in the past. Very little has been revealed about his part in the film which is creating even more curiosity in the minds of all Govinda fans.
Sonakshi, unlike her usual roles, plays a boxer in Holiday. Trained by ace boxer Vijender Singh for the part, Sonakshi reveals that Vijender taught her the body language of a boxing champion. Coincidentally, being a sportsperson herself, she picked it up well. Speaking about her love for sport, Sonakshi says:
“Even when I was younger I used to play a lot of sports and I think it comes naturally to me. They didn’t have to work much on me. Murugadoss sir wanted it to come naturally and not look very girly and playful, he wanted it to look professional and Vijender was a big help in that.”
Akshay Kumar and action are synonyms in Bollywood. But what is something to watch out for is that the action scenes for the film have been designed by the Hollywood stunts director, Greg Powell who has choreographed the stunts in films like Skyfall (2012), Harry Potter, and Fast & Furious 6 (2013), to name a few. As Khiladi Kumar says:
“Action in the film is far more realistic. We had Greg Powell, who has done stunts in Hollywood films like Skyfall and the Harry Potter series, on board. I’m neither shown jumping off 18 floors, nor are there any scenes showing the villain flying in the air.”
Interestingly, Akshay also notes that he has little interest in how the film will do at the Box Office:
“Let’s not talk about the expectations from the film. It is a very serious film dedicated to the Indian Army. I am not talking about the business. Whether it will earn Rs 100 crore or Rs 50 crore, I am more interested in how people take this film and how seriously they talk about it.”
“We should not take people who wear uniform for granted. Even a traffic police officer, who is standing outside and controlling the traffic should not be taken for granted. I think it is very essential that we respect any form of uniform,” Akshay says.
The music of the film too, has been popularising like the film itself. The music album composed by the super hit music director Pritam features a variety of songs.
Right from the vibrant romantic track ‘Tu Hi Tu Hai’ sung by Benny Dayal to the foot tapping club song ‘Blame the Night’ by Arijit Singh, Aditi Singh Sharma and Piyush Kapoor.
The album also boasts the slow romantic melody ‘Shayraana’ and the tragic track, ‘Ashq na ho’ both in the magical voice of Arijit Singh. One can also listen to a typical super catchy Mika Singh track named ‘Palang Tod’.
Would it be a surprise to reveal that two songs from Holiday are written and sung in his unique style by Indian superstar of the moment, Yo Yo Honey Singh. The musical scene of the upcoming film is impressive and has not only been up the Indian music charts recently, but has also reached second position on the popular iTunes World Album Chart.
If you are looking for a movie with a combination of romance, fun, entertainment and a nail-biting action-thriller then Holiday: A Soldier Never Off Duty is the movie to watch for. It releases from June 6.
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