Wanted is watchable... casually Review

For those who have missed the priceless Wanted promo, here's a recap: various shots of Salman Khan walking, talking, 'loving' and firing guns are set to a rather unbelievable voiceover telling us that 'He walks casually... he talks casually... he eats casually... he loves casually... he kills casually... but... he dances seriously.' On cue, of course, we cut to a montage of Salman dancing his feet off. I kid you not.
Wanted is a film directed by Prabhu Deva, the spectacularly spineless super-dancer some call the Indian Michael Jackson,or, even more iconically, Benny Lava. It is an adaptation of the Tamil Pokiri, which he had directed, itself an adaptation of the Telegu Pokiri, directed by Puri Jagannath. I would like to confess to fans of these originals that I haven't seen either of the two versions, but I confess it really doesn't seem to matter: borrowing the delightful phraseology of the Wanted teaser, all I can say about Prabhu Deva is that 'he directs... casually.'

Wanted is a modern-day rarity, a B-grade actioner that really doesn't spend any time trying to class up its tackiness or pretend to make sense. Scenes merge for no reason whatsoever, the girl pops up wherever guns are fired, and Salman Khan's schizophrenic hair changes style in every single shot. The writing is both amateurish and crass, while the songs are plain hideous. And hey, who wants to waste time with twists? Just keep the punches thick and fast.

As a very frequent viewer of Hindi cinema, I hasten to assure you that an overall lack of pretension is a pretty good thing -- even if the product is unashamedly stupid. This film is longer than it should be, often makes no sense, and has one inexplicably bizarre moment involving Vicco Vajradanti, but it's a film that knows what it is. As a film made solely to let a Khan kick a**, it's decidedly more fun than Ghajini. (Not that that's saying much.)

Salman stars as a boorish gun-for-hire named Radhe, one various goons from various Mumbai mafia families hire at various times to kill each other, and Khan dutifully executes for the highest bidder. The ruthless mercenary doesn't ever seem to spend any of his money, however, and hangs around with an entourage of dolts (one of whom is Inder Kumar, best remembered from the horribly, fantastically masala Akshay-starrer Khiladiyon Ka Khiladi).

Meanwhile, Govind Namdeo is a tough commissioner hellbent on scrubbing Mumbai clean, not even letting politicians stand in his way. On the other end of the khaki spectrum stands Mahesh Manjrekar ,playing an atrociously lecherous police inspector, as corrupt as humanly possible. The mafia ranks are topped off by Prakash Raj playing all-powerful don, Gani Bhai. And then there's Ayesha Takia playing The Girl, a painfully braindead shrieker masochistically drawn towards our hitman hero.