`Main Tera Hero` review – Varun Dhawan fills Govinda's shoes

By Aparna Mudi

Through the 90s David Dhawan was the ruling king of comedy. With Govinda as his favourite lead hero, and Salman Khan as a close second, Dhawan gave hit after hit even with movies that sometimes made no sense at all. Be it `Hero No 1`, `Biwi No. 1`, `Judwaa` or even the more recent `Partner`, they were all entertainers through and through. In his son, Varun Dhawan, the director has found a perfect match between Govinda with his comic timing and dance moves and Salman with his perfect body and machoism. `Main Tera Hero` (inspired from the Telegu movie `Kandireega`) is a typical Bollywood love triangle with a David Dhawan twist. Sreenath "Seenu" Prasad, played by Varun, is in love with Sunaina(Ileana D`Souza). However Varun has an admirer, the don`s (Anupam Kher) daughter Ayesha, played by Nargis Fakhri. Seenu pursues Sunaina, despite warnings that her lover/stalker (Arunoday) was unforgiving and it would have dire consequences. Things take a turn when Ayesha decided to make Seenu fall in love with her. There is the usual David Dhawan fanfare – a courtship, a kidnapping, a rescue, some action but nowhere does the movie turn too serious or sway from its intended flavour. For Varun, this should have been his big launch, instead of `Student of the Year`, because it seemed like he was comfortable in his shoes. Ileana was a revelation, as she played a sharp contrast to her role in `Barfi`. And Arunoday Singh, as Angad, gave a decent performance as the love struck villain. Anupam Kher was back in his element as a goofy gangster. Rajpal Yadav (as Peter) is back with a vengeance and Dhawan has used his talent well, and given him the screen time that he deserves. Highly entertaining in the first half, `Main Tera Hero` slumps in the second. The jokes are slightly in-your-face and fail to make you laugh at times. It seems that Dhawan has tried to re-create the nineties magic by rehashing some of the humour that worked in that decade. The audience should not look for logic and reasoning in a movie like this, and it delivers on that account. But you would definitely want the movie to be a little more fast paced, especially in the second half. The humour also gets forced as we go along in the movie. The cast of the movie have definitely been given leverage to play their characters with ease, and performances are good all around. They also seem to have had a lot of fun with the movie, especially Varun, as he looks adorable pulling faces and romancing the two lead heroines. The music of the movie has been well received, `Palat - Tera Hero Idhar Hai` inspired from `Jahan teri yeh nazar` is foot tapping, and Jr Dhawan has definitely filled Govinda`s shoes with some great moves. Other songs too are entertaining but nothing worth remembering. `Main Tera Hero` is definitely a one time watch and is sure to leave you amused and nostalgic of the 90`s humour; but that's about it.