31 March,2022 07:47 AM IST | Mumbai | mid-day online correspondent
Picture Courtesy: Official Instagram Account, John Abraham
John Abraham made his Hindi film debut with Jism in 2003, an erotic thriller about deceit and passion. The aura indicated the man is going to lead the path of playing suave, stylish characters that make the nation drool. He eventually did so, and moulded himself into an action hero with muscles and abs to die for.
The actor is on the verge of completing two decades in the Hindi film industry and has starred in some genuinely thrilling action films. He gears up for Attack Part 1 that releases on April 1, but before that, here are five of his best action films:
This was his game-changer after few setbacks. He played Kabir, a charming thief who revels in anonymity just like any other thief would. The long hair, the crooked smile and those gorgeous bikes only added to the attractiveness of the character and the thriller that later turned into a franchise. There were no combats and yet there was something very pulsating about Dhoom that makes it one of Abraham's most remembered films.
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Seven years later after the aforementioned film, Abraham stepped to the other side of the law to nab the villains and wipe out crime from the city. By this time, he had bulked up and bulged up into a far bigger human than he was when he started out. His action scene with the debuting Vidyut Jammwal in the climax makes for a total Paisa Vasool entertainment.
First of all, kudos to Shoojit Sircar for going in a totally opposite direction after Vicky Donor. This was not your regular masala potboiler about the battle between the good and bad. Madras Cafe was an absorbing thriller with style and slickness at its core. Abraham was not a mean-killing machine who goes on a rampage to kill his enemies. Madras Cafe was thrilling and chose brain over brawn.
The man barely spoke in this action-drama. He allowed his body to do the talking rather. He trained very hard for the role and every frame was enough proof of the same. Not maybe a stunning poetry in motion but enough pulp to give an adrenaline rush. The sequence that stood out was in the climax when Abraham slices and pierces almost all the flesh out of a human by his nifty knife skills. It's brutal yet beautiful to look at.
Why Force 2? Because this was too driven by slickness. Unlike the prequel, there were no hand-to-hand combats this time around as the villain mostly operated anonymously. The hero and the villain barely meet in the film and when they do, the villain is immediately dead. But what kept you hooked was the lengths till which the leading man was willing to go for performing all his stunts on his own, even when it came at the cost of busting his knee and splitting it wide open. Bad blood, anyone?