HEROPANTI is a product launch of Tiger Shroff, son of actor Jackie Shroff. Viewed in this perspective, it's 'Mission Successful'. The product per say is packaged well, keeping the core competency of the main ingredient in mind. view more HEROPANTI videos Tiger leaps, fights, dances and emotes well. He is a bit stiff, but considering this is his first outing, I am sure he will shake off that malaise in films to come. Does he qualify for the race in the years to come? Of course, and he will be a top contender at that.

Every time a star kid is launched there is a whole lot of expectation that is built. But much before the anticipation, a script is woven to showcase every possible salable quality of the debutant. Or in this case, a script was borrowed from a superhit Telugu film. Quite obviously it has all the elements of entertainment to ensure the best packaging of the star-to-be. Heropanti is clearly about Tiger Shroff - his style, his dance and most importantly his action.

The story takes you back to the early nineties. Except that the backdrop is now the north. Boy Babloo (Tiger Shroff) falls in love with the girl at first sight. She turns out to be daughter of a goon, who has captured him to get the address of the boy who has eloped with his older daughter. Soon, she too begins to have feelings for him. Father senses. Which way would the story go ahead now? It goes the same route as DDLJ or Maine Pyar Kiya.

Heropanti is a remake of a 2008 Allu Arjun film called Parugu. The Hindi remake remains faithful to its Telugu original in every frame and perhaps that's it Achilles' heel. A deviation in the treatment and narrative would have made it a better film. Kriti Sanon's elder sister runs away on the day of her marriage. Now, their father Prakash Raj is a Haryanvi don of sorts, so the whole of Jatland is after the blood of the daughter and her lover. The goons pick up Tiger and his two friends and rough them up in the hope that they would cough up the couple's location. Now, an extremely resourceful Tiger who for some strange reason is called Bablu in the film could have escaped all along but for the fact that a) he catches a glimpse of the girl he has fallen for in the village and b) she turns out to be the runaway bride's younger sister. Bablu has been helping the couple all along and now his task is to take the pursuers on a wild goose chase and run away with the younger sister himself...

Whenever a star kid makes a debut, the pressure is always double and expectations sky high. More so when your father is Jackie Shroff whose rustic charm never failed to captivate the audiences in the '80s. But Tiger Shroff is nothing like his father even when it comes to looks. The young lad is not a conventional looking Hindi film hero nor is he a chocolate boy whose puppy eyes would melt your hearts. In fact, you can't really bracket him into any category coz he is unlike any other actor who has entered Bollywood in the recent times. Well, that may or may not appeal to the masses but here's what I think: The Heropanti actor has a fabulous body and he knows how to use it well onscreen. Surprisingly, he's a good dancer too. But running around trees and doing cheesy Bollywood steps doesn't suit him at all. But the big question is - has Jackie dada's son packed a punch with his debut film Heropanti which is directed by Sabbir Khan and co-stars newbie Kriti Sanon and Prakash Raj in the lead roles? Let's find out...

Sabbir Khan's 'Heropanti' has the most obsolete and predictable premise possible in the history of Bollywood masala filmmaking. Yes, we are used to a staple diet of typical "formula" films but this one reeks of lazy storytelling - clichd plot, borrowed ideas and shoddy execution. Tiger Shroff's lacklustre debut adds no spark to the sinking narrative. A bride goes missing on her wedding day, refusing to be forcefully married to a man she doesn't love. The father (Prakash Raj) and other trigger-happy uncles are ready to hunt down the absconding couple to restore honour in the Jat family.

Boy looks at girl. Boy falls for girl. Girl's father growls. Boy scowls. Girl howls. And I'm left sobbing into my popcorn. As you can see, I've had quite a time at Heropanti, which presents a couple of gormless debutants - Jackie's son Tiger as the hero and Sanon as the heroine - in a story that is objectionable at so many levels that I gave up counting.

"Sab ko aati nahi, meri jaati nahi," says Tiger Shroff time and again. Now you might think that he's talking about pimples or loose motions, but its really heropanti that he has in mind. What is this heropanti, one might ask; and if we were on KBC, this is what the answer would look like Heropanti is:

There are many things that debutant Tiger Shroff can do with ease. Back flips, aerial kicks, hip hop dancing. But acting is not one of them. Shroff is 24. To gender reverse Britney Spears's lyrics, he is not a boy not yet a man. It doesn't help that when he smiles, viewers instantly forget his machismo. It's a sweet smile which doesn't make you blush, but confused if it's coming in happiness or pain. And unfortunately Tiger smiles too often in Heropanti, often for no reason. Heropanti would have hit the ball out of the park if it released in the 1980s. The setting is Haryana and Chaudhary Sahib (Prakash Raj, Bollywood's preferred villain) is a no-nonsense patriarch of a Jat family of goons.

Another star son. Big launch. Action hero. New heroine. Hit songs. The works. Does it work? The best thing that could be said about Heropanti is that it is not as terrible as Salman Khan and Akshay Kumar films. The second best thing about it is that Tiger Shroff may be effeminate, but he's a likable guy who can do some truly amazing stunts.

Story: Bablu helps Rakesh elope with Choudhary Suraj Singh's daughter Renu. What happens when Bablu meets Suraj Singh - and his other daughter, Dimpy? Review: So, Heropanti is like DDLJ - wearing knuckle-dusters. The action is in 'Jat-land' where rural lord Choudhary Suraj Singh (Raj) is celebrating the arranged marriage of his daughter Renu (Dhar). The wedding's high Haryanvi style, all celebratory bullets and booze, chowmein eaten with dhai-kilo hands and relatives including an encounter specialist cop, a land shark badmaash and king of Delhi's bouncers. But the 'Kala Kutta' dries up when Renu elopes with Rakesh. In pursuit, her enraged relations capture Rakesh's buddies - including Bablu (Shroff) who pummels the Haryanvis hard. Bablu's fists stop flying when Dimpy - Suraj Singh's younger daughter - arrives. Will his heroics win?

There's nothing honourable about honour killing. But by jove, it makes for a terrific story specially when the intention is to weave a genial love story around a serious issue. In parts, reminiscent of Priyadarshan's Rangrezz, Heropanti is an unabashedly straight and schmaltzy launchpad for Tiger Shroff. And he excels in every department. The narrative gets to the point straight away with conversational elan. It's a gaudy bustling wedding in Haryana where we meet a family of unapologetic ruffians posing as aristocrats.

Heropanti is designed to do exactly one thing - make us like Tiger Shroff, and that it does exceedingly well. The film is a showcase for Tiger's talents; he is an incredible acrobat who does backflips in dance sequences and effortlessly leaps off walls in action scenes. He is a smooth dancer. His body seems chiselled out of granite - director Sabbir Khan makes sure Tiger drops his shirt often, so that we have ample time to ponder his abs. In places, the dialogue delivery is off and his startling pink lips are a tad awkward. But he has a very solid screen presence. Can Tiger act? I don't know. Is he a star? Absolutely.

What's Good: Kriti Sanon is surprisingly quite a show stealer in a film that is below mediocre. What's Bad: Tiger Shroff's dialogue delivery, Prakash Raj's hammy over the top melodramatic acting is plain distasteful. The absence of screenplay quite adds on to the film's negatives. But the worst of the minuses has to be Tiger Shroff himself. Jackie Dada's cub is a sheer disappointment.

I sometimes wonder, what facets remain to be explored in the romance genre by dream merchants here? Right from MUGHAL-E-AZAM to BOBBY, EK DUUJE KE LIYE, HERO, QAYAMAT SE QAYAMAT TAK, MAINE PYAR KIYA and DILWALE DULHANIA LE JAYENGE, to the love stories attempted by new-age directors of late, just about every facet of love and romance has been explored and presented on the silver screen. Every film-maker, from K. Asif, Raj Kapoor and Yash Chopra to Aditya Chopra, Karan Johar and Sanjay Leela Bhansali, have delivered some memorable love stories that hold tremendous recall value. But pyaar, ishq, mohabbat can never go out of fashion. Besides, every film-maker has his/her individualistic style of interpreting a love tale...