Akshay Kumar Gives Us Deja Vu In The Trailer For KHILADI 786

2012 has been a very busy, and mostly successful, year for Bollywood action star Akshay Kumar. Of the four films in which he's played a role this year, two have been mega-blockbusters (Housefull 2, Rowdy Rathore), one has been a surprise critical hit (OMG), and the last was a momentous financial disaster (Joker). Normally, this would be the time when an actor takes a breather and starts to plan next year, but Akshay Kumar says FUCK THAT, and he's going to bring back the crazy action packed adventures of the Khiladi (the boss), the role that made him a star back in the '90s.

The brightly colored, wire-fu, crazy car, goofball action filled trailer for Khiladi 786 says that the film is reviving Bollywood's biggest franchise, and to some extent that's true, but it's a little more complicated than that. Akshay Kumar has starred in no less than five Khiladi films, but they are really only bound together by the title and the fact that they all feature Kumar surrounded by insane action. They aren't actually sequels and he doesn't even play the same character in all of the films.

That being said, there is unfortunately little to distinguish the trailer for Khiladi 786 from the trailers for Rowdy Rathore, Singham, Bodyguard, or any of the other new school masala films of which Bollywood has grown so fond over the last few years. I really enjoy some of these films, but Kumar's last few have been an extremely mixed bag. If you add to that a director making his feature debut after performing 1st AD duties on the Golmaal films, and I'm a bit nervous. The one redeeming fact about this film is that it apparently features '80s action legend Mithun Chakraborty, the Disco Dancer himself, in a strong supporting role. Chakraborty was a bright spot in Kumar's otherwise lackluster Chandni Chowk to China, so hopefully he lifts this film out of the doldrums.

Khiladi 786 opens on December 7th.