Toofan is a sports drama-based film. It is directed by Rakeysh Omprakash Mehra, written by Anjum Rajabali and Vijay Maurya, and narrated by Vijay Raaz. It is produced by Ritesh Sidhwani, Farhan Akhtar, Rakeysh Omprakash Mehra, and its production companies ROMP Pictures and Excel Entertainment.
Toofan’s story is about a national-level boxer from the streets of Dongri, who is set against the backdrop of boxing but this movie it will show how he falls and come back with a victorious win after fighting against its all odds in life.
Cast
Toofan stars Farhan Akhtar as Aziz Ali ( Toofan) aka Ajju Bhai, Paresh Rawal as Coach, Mrunal Thakur as Pooja Shah, Vijay Raaz, Mohan Agashe, Hussain Dalal, Darshan Kumar.
Release Date
Its initial release date was previously fixed on 18th September 2020 but due to the Covid-19 pandemic, it was delayed for an indefinite period. But on March 10, 2021, Amazon Prime Video has announced that the film will be released on their platform in May 2021.
Later the release date was postponed due to the outbreak of the second wave of the coronavirus. It has finally now released on Amazon Prime Video on 16th July 2021, and its streaming successfully.
Here we present the trailer:-
Review
Toofan is an underprivileged underdog-to-boxing-champion tale. The arc of the tale is quite predictable but the film makes it enjoyable through the way it has been written and performed. The audiences would get to know that where the movie would take us, but the journey explodes with smart dodge and jabs, and finally ended with a satisfying punch.
The recent films are wholly dumb and for this, there was not much hope left about this film, which is basically a mainstream film, where all the familiar elements have been put together. The director Rakeysh Omprakash Mehra does not fall back from genre elements. But eventually dressed them up with full confidence and freshness for the audiences so that they got engaged for Aziz Ali aka Ajju Bhai which was played by Farhan Akhtar.
Akhtar has started with a little extra swag and murmur, but it has settled down soon. He played the role of a “Dongri-ka-small-time-Vasooli-Bhai” who always does ‘Phoda-Phodi’ or rather we called it ‘maar-Peet’ (basically said in regular Hindi language) i.e. beating peoples who were unable to pay the rent or ‘Hafta’. After this, we would be going to see what’s coming up a mess up. Akhtar meets a pretty local doctor Ananya (Mrunal Thakur) which leads to the flutter of hearts. Aziz meets with a tough, short-tempered, irritable coach Nana Prabhu who would lead Aziz to put through his paces, the hallowed place for all aspiring boxers.
This is where the writers of the film have brought an inserted twist. Prabhu was a proud Hindu who has convinced that there was no difference between ‘Dongri and Dubai’. Calling his uber-talented Musalmaan pupil an unstoppable ‘Toofan’ is one thing; embracing him as a person is unthinkable.
In the second half, we will see too many songs to get stuffed in. It also gave a character too much time to pour out partiality before he sees the light is a tricky business. Paresh Rawal’s effortless acting freshens up the audience and makes it his own. Farhan Akhtar has played his role very effectively, his footwork was bang on, whether it is romancing with a girl far removed from his station or it is about glistening muscles, the skillful jousting, and many more, he was always going to be on top.
As a whole, the movie Tofaan has many issues with its 160 minutes narrative. The love story between Ali and Ananya, a father-daughter relationship, uncountable tear-jerkers, and several songs weaken the core plot. This film seems to be out of focus, it actually uses the emotional card to engage the audience. Beyond this, the film has some fire and fury left in it that one would expect to have on a boxing sports film.
