Mohammed
When it comes to boxing films, Sylvester Stallone's Rocky (1976) can easily serve as a readymade template for a script - an underdog rises to become a champ, circumstances force his downfall, he fights back to re-emerge the winner!! That pretty much sums up the plot for any movie made on this sport. Back home, Bollywood has liberally borrowed the "Rocky" template to dish out films like Boxer (1984), Ghulam (1998), Apne (2007) and more recently Sultan (2016). Raj (Daddu) Sippy's Boxer pitting Mithun Chakraborty against Sharad Saxena in the boxing ring is the best of the lot. The film had right amount of emotions and drama cleverly blended in to the standard narrative. The story idea of Toofaan is credited to Farhan Akhtar which means he either watched Rocky or Boxer the previous night before putting the pen to paper. Evidently, Farhan bhai is also updated with current affairs and news items like Love Jihad and the Elphinstone bridge tragedy find its way here as plot points. Even though they appear irrelevant (to main theme) and largely unreal!! Particularly, the inter caste as well as inter class marriage between Aziz Ali (Farhan) and Ananya Prabhu (Mrunal Thakur) is so godamn unconvincing that it robs the film of its credibility. He is a street thug with a foul language. She is a practicing doctor from a respected family who helps the thug take up boxing as profession and then suddenly falls for him. Even though she despised his sadak chaap behaviour a couple of scenes ago. Huhh??!!! Next, Aziz finds a master coach in Nana Prabhu (Paresh Rawal) unaware that he is Ananya's dad and hates Muslims after a personal tragedy. Aziz becomes a national champ, is renamed Toofaan for his super stamina and lightning moves and soon enough, divulges his lady love to his coach over a drink session. Expectedly, all hell breaks loose...and the doctor moves in to Aziz's hutment in Dongri after pappa disapproves. To make ends meet, Aziz cheats in a game, gets caught and is banned for five years. Career kaput!! What happens next is something a five year old call tell. Toofaan truly suffers from highly uninspiring writing giving it a dated feel. I am surprised Farhan actually wrote it and Rakeysh Omprakash Mehra agreed to direct it as a follow up to their fantastic biopic Bhaag Milkha Bhaag (2013). Coming from the same team, this is a disappointment no doubt!! Of the cast, Paresh Rawal is competent as the Islamophobic coach but personally, I feel Sharad Saxena would've been a better choice for this role. The lovely Mrunal Thakur pitches in yet another fine performance though her character isn't developed properly. Darshan Kumar leaves a mark even in a cameo. As for Farhan Akhtar, he deserves credit for the physical effort taken to play a boxer but the actor falters badly mouthing those tapori slang words. It just doesn't suit him. Toofaan needed someone like Mithunda of the '80s. Well, even the film belongs to that era!!!