Action, un-interrupted

Nonika Singh

If, like us, you were looking forward to Netflix original Extraction with a strong Indian connect, brace yourself for a barrage of bullets and loads of disappointment.  Starring Chris Hemsworth aka Thor, whose following in India is tremendous, this Hollywood actioner (based on the graphic novel Ciudad by Ande Parks), takes  a detour right into Indian territory  before setting the action zone in India’s neighbour Bangladesh.

Hemsworth, playing Tyler Rake, a former SAS (Special Air Service ) operator-turned-mercenary is the charming saviour. If you have seen the trailers, you must be already familiar with the rather thin plot. A boy, Ovi Mahajan, son of Indian drug lord (Pankaj Tripathi in the briefest of roles), who is cooling his heels in a jail, is kidnapped by a Bangladeshi don Amir Asif for reasons that are not quite explained.

Tyler picks up the task of extracting the boy right from the clutches of the don, whose connections go right up to the Army officers. The early sequences in which he wrestles with the team guarding the boy have just the requisite frenzy needed for an action flick. Swift, rapid fire and exact. Thereafter, more action follows in an ad nauseam repeat mode, almost as if a video game is being simulated. Randeep Hooda as Saju joins in for some serious action and gets enough screen-time to flex muscles, break bones as well as mauled up to rise again.

His track in the film as Tripathi’s henchman is interesting and does add some twist and zing too, especially in the concluding rushes. But much else that unfolds is on familiar ground. Who will live and who will die, who will betray whom, unpredictability is certainly not Extraction’s virtue or USP. But fleeting wit and the slowly developing warmth between the rescuer and the rescued is somewhat redeeming. The young lad Rudhraksh Jaiswal, as Ovi, has put up an earnest act and his rapport with Hemsworth, even as he poses some probing personal questions to him, has a natural charm.

But a lot else is stereotyped, especially the manner in which the character of  Bangladeshi don Amir Asif (Indian actor Priyanshu Painyuli playing the part as best as the script and director would allow him) is built. Throwing children off the roof tops, threatening to cut their fingers… there is less menace and more artifice here. Yet among his battalion of young impoverished kids, a couple of child actors do stand out.

Action, without a doubt is of Hollywood quality and the cinematography that takes us into the lanes and bylanes of Bangladesh has the right feel to it. But as Hollywood style combat marries a desi plot, much gets misplaced as you get a sneaky feeling that the film is especially targeted at Netflix’s growing Indian tribe of viewers.

Hooda fans should be more than happy that the actor does not get a short shrift and makes the most of his run-time. Only, if you are looking for true Indian essence in a story with a purported emotional core, seek elsewhere. Here mind-boggling action rules and also robs it of anything more substantial as well as noteworthy.

nonikasingh@tribunemail.com