Hit 3

Why doesn’t John Wick die? Why doesn’t Ethan Hunt die? Why doesn’t any bullet even graze the shoulders of our heroes when they have insane precision with their shots? How do the henchmen die with a couple of slashes by a machete but the hero survives a thousand blows? Of course, there is no point asking these questions simply because we know the answer. He is the hero, and at the end of the day, he has to walk into the sunset with a girl in tow even if he is a bloodied mess. Director Sailesh Kolanu’s third installment in the popular HIT franchise, follows this template right from the word go, and converts our ‘beloved-boy-next-door’ Nani into a ‘kick-the-door open and innovatively kill and maim 100 people’ Nani.

In a scene from HIT: The Third Case, a character describes Arjun Sarkaar’s (Nani) actions as “classy”. Arjun retorts that this time, he intends to show his true self — stepping away from the image of refinement often associated with him. In another moment, when someone warns him that he “cannot survive here”, he responds, “I’ve been hearing that since the beginning of my career.” These meta-cinematic lines feel less like commentary on the character and more like nods to the actor himself. In HIT 3, director Sailesh Kolanu leans into fan service, casting Nani — long embraced by family audiences — in a darker, bloodier setup. The film carries an ‘A’ certificate, and Nani effectively sheds his man-next-door image to become a ruthless cop whose methods, unsurprisingly, come under scrutiny. Departing from the slow-burn whodunit tone of the earlier films, this third instalment in the HIT universe trades mystery for carnage. It is not about who, how, or even why — the perpetrators are beyond reasoning. The real question is whether the film successfully marries crime thriller elements with full-throttle action to offer a gripping cinematic experience. Some segments land powerfully; others feel stretched or overly engineered.