Broken Horses : The Bugle's Verdict

With Broken Horses, ace director and producer Vidhu Vinod Chopra tries to sink his feet into Hollywood. Having fully steered the venture; producing, directing and co-writing it with Abhijat Joshi, Chopra tries to instil the emotional quotient from his Bollywood hits into American Wild West culture. Let’s see if the effort was up to it.

For those familiar with Chopra’s cult classic, Parinda, Broken Horses is essentially its scene by scene remake, with a minor twist to the climax. The comparative casting is as follows-

• Julius Hench – Vincent D’Onofrio (Nana Patekar)
• Buddy Heckum – Chris Marquette (Jackie Shroff)
• Jakey Heckum – Anton Yelchin (Anil Kapoor)
• Vittoria - Maria Valverde (Madhuri Dixit)

For those who haven’t seen Parinda, here is some background – A man, in order to support his younger brother in life, starts working for a gangster, who won’t let him go at any cost. When the younger brother comes to know, he joins the ranks too, but to destroy the organisation from within, and get his brother out of the gangster’s clutches.

Coming out after watching Broken Horses, if we were sure about one thing, it was that the film lacks ambition, which is evident in the very fact that the producer literally remade his own film, frame by frame. The weight of this statement doesn’t diminish easily, whatever number of times it may be said. Nonetheless, the film doesn’t disappoint, as it provides exactly what one expected from the director: an emotionally fuelled story about love, sacrifice and family. The story gets a western facelift, and though a bit of a drag, and left somewhat unexplained at times, it manages to provide ample thrills and gun-slinging drama, and keep the audience occupied in anxiousness. The backdrop of the movie has been done nicely, setting it near the US-Mexico border, giving it an eerie, dangerous feel, that puts up the correct atmosphere for the mystery, manipulation and suspense the film is shrouded in.

Acting skills weren’t a big contributor in this venture. Anton Yelchin, in the lead, comes off as a fused bulb. His performance is dull, and he seems to be just pulling it along for the heck of it. His on-screen romance with Maria Valverde also seems one-sided, with the actress doing good in the role of Vittoria, the doting fiancee, and Yelchin just wanting to get it over with, collect his paycheck and go home. Chris Marquette is, if not exemplary, appreciable in the shoes of Buddy Heckum, the somewhat mentally handicapped brother, manipulated into becoming a hitman to support his younger brother. D’Onofrio looks good as the mob boss Julius Hench. Though his performance seems somewhat theatrical and overdone at times, he does considerable justice to the character.

Verdict – Considering the team behind the movie, one would expect much more from this one. Nevertheless, Broken Horses will make an acceptable Saturday night outing for the more gourmet cinema fans.