Gold - it's the perfect formula to rake in the moolah while tugging on our heartstrings and emotions that tend to run high on the independence day. Draw on the backdrop of the British rule in undivided India, build on the long cherished dream of flying the tricolour high, and if you are able to pull off the idea of beating the rulers at their own game, director Reema Kagti has the ingredients of the perfect blockbuster.

Alas, Gold isn't what it was destined to be, and its trump card, Akshay Kumar, is indeed its weakest link. Playing Tapan Das, an eccentric Bengali man who is the national hockey team's joint "manager" with the aforesaid long cherished dream, Akshay Kumar misfires and goes completely off target. It's a poorly sketched character to start with as there isn't any explanation offered about his credentials to be the manager. Further, he simply fails to get under the skin of the desired protagonist and keeps it superficial. He has made no attempt to even brushing up the Bengali language and keeps calling younger lads "Dada". Very poorly researched, culturally speaking. Constantly hamming, he actually grates on the nerves, especially in the second half, where his role becomes more of a caricature. Gold isn't "Chak De India", the envious nature of a few players hasn't been crafted well. Why the coach of the team played by Kunaal Kapoor doesn't accompany the team to the Olympic venue remains unexplained. Gold fails to evoke the pathos associated with the partition too - it's a huge opportunity lost. The music is forgettable - the best score was the national anthem playing in the end, predictably.

In conclusion, Gold misses the mark by a mile. Akshay Kumar should have taken a leaf out of Aamir Khan's "Secret Superstar" and passed on the mantle to the younger and hugely talented cast, instead of being in the forefront.

GOLD REVIEW :

One of the most awaited film of the year for me especially looking at Akshay Kumar's script since now days and he was coming back after classic Padman so expectation from this one were high for obvious reasons. The trailer of the film was promising enough to build expectations among the people and now no hesitation to say that Gold lives up to the Expectations level, completely. I don't remember the last film which was released on Independence Day and totally deserved to be released on the day just because of its content and here comes Gold which I felt is completely deserving and probably the only deserving film for the Independence day release as far as this decade is concerned.

Talking about the story Gold is a journey of Hockey Team India's Struggle, Courage, Patients and Glorious Victory from pre independence period to Post independence period in typical filmy way. In acting Akshay Kumar has lived his character of a Bengali guy whose accent is completely amazing and his command over dialogue delivery is Superb. Mouni Roy as his wife looks Beautiful and mouths perfect Begali of that particular period. There is a big team of actors and everyone has done decent job which looks good on screen. Writing of the film its top notch, and is filled with plenty of Twists and cinematic moments. Dialogues are sober, quite encouraging and clap worthy. Cinematography is good because the locations of the film were set in old era, so the naturality should have remained intact and happily it remains intact. The Hockey Match sequences were shot in tactical way and have been supported by very well by VFX team & thrilling Background music.

Done with all the positives of the film now coming towards the minuses. The biggest minus point of the film its music. Couple of songs are irritating and completely useless while the title song and one situational song are somewhat tolerable. Reema Kagti has done a very good job but I am personally very disappointed as I find the script was a Masterpiece material and Reema has failed to achieve that Masterpiece tag. Typical film-making and commercial vision has spoiled the Classic content at some level which doesn't let this film end up on a classic note. Come on, you don't need every scene to be Filmy and twisty, sometimes you can just go with the flow. But that doesn't mean it is a bad film, it is very good one indeed. Though, it could have been a Classic. Two patriotic films I remember with almost no minuses at all are Chak De India and Dangal Where The Masterpiece writing was molded into classic cinematic gem and the credit definitely goes to the directors and their vision which seems lacking in the case of Gold. One of the most important thing about those two Films was that these two classics didn't have any useless love making scenes and Gold has couple of loo-breaks in that form.

In final talk, I would say Gold is the most deserving Independence Day release of this decade because of Shivering last 30 Minutes portion and despite not being a classic this one is still a must watch if you want to see some patriotic Hysteria this Independence Day. This one is a winner All The Way... Critically as well as Commercially. This one was a 9/10* material but Reema Kagti has made out a 7/10* film while the great run of Akki continues....

The lead actor cannot act. The film is melodramatic n boring at times.