Virat Bakshi (Akshay Kumar) is coming home during a break from serving the Indian Army. However, in Mumbai he is confronted with the sleeper cells that want to cause mayhem. While he is trying to outsmart the leader of the sleeper cells, he is also romancing Saiba (Sonakshi Sinha). Holiday: A Soldier Is Never Off Duty has all the elements of a complete Bollywood entertainer.
The action scenes are well-orchestrated, and center on Virat bashing up the goons. As Virat is from the DIA (Defense Intelligence Agency), a wing of the Indian Army, he is well-equipped to fight against the head of the sleeper cells played by Farhad (Freddy Daruwala). Assisting Virat is his friend and police sub-inspector, Mukund Deshmukh, played by Sumeet Raghavan. Though Sonakshi Sinha’s role in the film is not pivotal to the main plot, it is nevertheless well-played. There are a few songs that involve Akshay Kumar and Sonakshi Sinha that are passable even though they may detract some viewers from the main story.
Akshay Kumar plays his part with passion. He looks like an army man with his strong physique. Sumeet Raghavan plays the supporting role in the film ably. Farhad plays the antagonist quite well considering that he is a newcomer. Govinda plays Akshay Kumar’s superior in the film in a special role. A.R. Murugadoss who has directed the film has done a decent job. Some viewers might find a few scenes to be exaggerated, but this is only expected in a commercial Bollywood film.
As this film is made with the intention of catering to the masses, it has some funny scenes in between the otherwise intense on goings. The closet scene is particularly funny, where Virat hides one of the goons in his closet. When Virat discloses this to Mukund, he is alarmed. In almost a repeat of this scene, there is another scene in which another goon and Saiba are hidden in the closet by Virat, once again to be revealed to a flummoxed Mukund, who questions Virat as to why he doesn’t use the closet to keep books and clothes like other people.
All-in-all, Holiday: A Soldier Is Never Off Duty is entertaining and will appeal to the masses. Don’t expect too much from this film, and you will not be disappointed that you chose to spend an evening watching it.
What do you think?