Gabbar is back - and so is Akshay Kumar, with a big-screen bang. Professor Aditya (Akshay) has a secret life as vigilante Gabbar who terrorizes government officials. Gabbar and his gang kidnap tehsildars, collectors and cops, hanging the most corrupt in public. As the police search frantically for this rebel with a cause, Gabbar decides corrupt builder Patil (Suman) ko bhi sazaa milegi, barabar milegi - does Gabbar succeed?

Kitne aadmi the? ...asked the iconic villain Gabbar to his shivering cronies. 'Do sarkar', I am tempted to tell him hoping that he takes the writer of this film, (Rajat Aroraa) and the director (Krish) into his den and gives them his dose of 'Iski Sajaa milegi, barabbar milegi' for attempting to taint his name. Bahut naainsaafi hai. It's really hard to take this film, which is supposedly sending a strong social message, seriously. At the outset the film's intention (nothing novel, yet) seems alright as a wronged man, Aditya (Akshay Kumar) goes around eliminating corrupt Government officers, in a bid to eliminate corruption.

Bollywood is a domain where, almost every week, a new character 'takes birth'. There have been many instances wherein the film's characters have become evergreen icons and names to reckon with. The day and date of August 15, 1975 will always be memorable for the cinema lovers as that was the day when the iconic 'Gabbar' (of SHOLAY) took birth on silver screen. Even though this week's release GABBAR IS BACK happens to be the 'name-esis' of the famous character 'Gabbar', will it create the same impact as its original

There's this constable Sadhu, whose only job is to bring samosas with extra sauce, apart from driving his boss (an oversized police officer) who mouths dialogues with an IQ of a seven-year-old. When his suggestions of catching Gabbar is laughed at and he is mocked by officers of ACP rank (who have the arrogance of rich 18-year-olds) Sadhu decides to go on sick leave to nab Gabbar. Now, this Gabbar is not the one who evoked terror through the late Amjad Khan when SHOLAY released. In fact, this Gabbar is just the opposite-he rights the wrongs in the wrong way.

After Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, the Shah of Iran was overthrown and Ayatollah Khomeini took on the role of the Supreme Leader of the country, Iran got back to its culture of public executions. As of 2015, the country is among the only four in the world, where public execution as a mode of capital punishment is prevalent. The other three are North Korea, Saudi Arabia and Somalia.

Gabbar is back, and it isn't good news. Yes, let us not mince words. This Gabbar is a damp squib. Not only does he lack the pull and power of Hindi cinema's most memorable baddie, even the half-baked homilies that this holier-than-thou terminator of the corrupt mouths reeks of staleness. But what did you expect from a film that, for its title, had to fall back on a household name from one of Hindi cinema's biggest hits, made all of 40 years ago? Every bit of the Gabbar Is Back screenplay reflects the same spirit of lowbrow lethargy. The film marks a return to the bad habits of a past that much of Hindi cinema appears to have left behind for good.

Villains aren't what they used to be. I haven't seen the original South Indian versions of many of the cruelly loud movies we're subjected to every few months, but the ones they make in Hindi cinema are so definitively STAR VEHICLES that they deserve the all-caps rebuke. There is clearly no other purpose to these movies than to blatantly make the hero always look good, therefore, despite forever making good-versus-evil stories, they don't create villains of true menace or charisma or even ones that look momentarily like they could whip the hero's behind.

Aditya (Akshay Kumar) is an extremely righteous professor who dreams of creating awareness among the youth and making them 'doers' instead of being 'watchers' to the rotten system of corruption. He is a professor at National College, which seems more like a hypothetical college where no police can enter. Aditya along with a team of his students who have now branched out of college and are placed in various government organizations chalks out a plan to erase the top-most corrupt officials. Calling himself as Gabbar, Aditya kidnaps Tehsildars, Collectors, PWD official and even a police official and kills them.

There's a vigilante on the loose who likes swooping upon the dirty and the corrupt and putting the spotlight on them. That, in one thin line, is the plot of the latest Akshay Kumar's 'Gabbar is Back', in which he stars In and As a latter-day Gabbar, the Good Bad Guy Who Is Out To Fix The System. Being the 'hero' of such an enterprise gives Akshay has room to do everything he's done before, and not one thing new. He kicks and punches and pummels and roars, fronting a name that is a throwback to one of Bollywood's most enduring baddies.

Ever since it's been announced, I've been curious to know why the new Akshay Kumar movie is called Gabbar is Back. This isn't a sequel, there wasn't a movie called Gabbar, so why suggest otherwise? This query is answered almost as soon as Gabbar is Back begins, with the opening credits of the movie. They have given you pretty much the whole film, including the action scenes, using only GIF images. We see that Kumar is a vigilante named Gabbar who fights corruption and finally kicks the villain in the nuts.

If you take a closer look at Akshay Kumar's recent films, you'll realise he is positioning himself as the brand new champion of the crusade against corruption. Be it Special 26 or Holiday or Baby, khiladi kumar is using the concept of vigilante justice as the bait, and he's beating competition to pulp at their own game. His latest Gabbar Is Back is more of the same, just that this time the stakes were astronomical. But has he played his game well this time?