The biggest problem with Farhan Akhtar and Rakeysh Omprakash Mehra’s Toofaan is not that it’s a stale hodgepodge of ill-derived sports film cliches clunkily cobbled together. Nor is it the bloated runtime which is unapologetically padded with needless and insipid songs and the futile pretence of setting up characters that seem to be recklessly fashioned from borrowed cardboard. But it is the insidiously irresponsible if not cunningly conceived politics of the film that make it lean towards problematic propaganda more than just the puerile incompetence of everyday Bollywood fare.
Its comically contrived plot is kicked off when Farhan’s Aziz Ali, a Dongri thug with the proverbial heart of gold – proven by the film because he hangs out with orphaned kids – aspires to become a boxer. Now how does his proclivity for violence really translate into his prowess as a pugilist is never explained, but soon enough he finds himself state champion under the tutelage of ‘Mumbai’s…