Tiger Shroff returns in this third installment of his iconic action franchise and this time, he’s got an entire nation to target.

Since they have been kids, Ronnie has always been protective of his older brother Vikram. However, at times, his actions have caused the wrath of their father, respected police officer Charan Chaturvedi. When the officer is killed protecting an entire village, he makes Ronnie promise to always protect Vikram. When Vikram joins the police force to follow in his father’s footsteps, he is scared, but keeping his promise, Ronnie helps Vikram on his cases incognito.

As Vikram rises up the ranks to become a respected officer like his father, he also finds love with Ruchi while her sister Siya becomes attracted to Ronnie. When Vikram is invited to go to Syria to do some paperwork and help with a case involving a deadly terrorist named Abu Jalal Gaza, he is kidnapped during a video call with Ronnie. Ronnie vows that if anything happens to Vikram, he will take the organization on. With the help of Siya and contact Akhtar Lahori, Ronnie heads to Syria and learns to save Vikram, he will have to take on an entire nation who are in cahoots with Abu Jalal Gaza.

With the success of both Baaghi and Baaghi 2, it is evident that lead actor Tiger Shroff is the millennium’s top action star when it comes to Bollywood films. The martial arts ace gets to strut his stuff again. Changing fears from the previous films, this third installment doesn’t involve a love interest, but the topic of brotherhood, in which we see Shroff’s Ronnie now protecting his older and somewhat mentally challenged brother Vikram, played wonderfully by Riteish Deshmukh.

The chemistry between Shroff and Deshmukh is the heart of the film this time around. However, Shraddha Kapoor, who played Ronnie’s love interest in the original 2016 film, returns in a new version of her Siya character. However, her attraction to Ronnie is more of a backburner feed compared to that of the original. And Baaghi 2 love interest Disha Patani makes a cameo in one of the two big trademark musical scenes that take away the seriousness of the film.

The trio of Lakshman and Ram Chella along with Thai stunt coordinator Kecha Khamphakdee once again take over action duties after their impressive work on Baaghi 2. Using Slovakia as Syria, kudos also goes to stunt coordinator Slavisa Ivanovic for his use of military tanks during one of the most insane action finales that is a total throwback to the days of 80s Hollywood action. The reason this is mentioned is that during the 80s, Hollywood had the “invincible” action hero with Arnold Schwarzenegger, Sylvester Stallone, and others defying the odds against endless villains and in some cases armies.

Here, Shroff uses his martial arts abilities and in a nod to Ong-Bak like he did in the previous film, slides under a tank with an impressive close-up shot. Before the set action pieces against Abu Jalal Gaza’s army, we get glimpses of Shroff in action, especially when he takes on a group of thugs in a movie theater. This is where we see Shroff use his kicking skills to good use and of course, overdone a bit with wirework for impact shots. If there is one gripe about the action, it is during the finale, we see an overabundance of slow-motion impact shots that didn’t need to be there. However, it is redeemed by a twist that proves to be pretty unexpected but satisfying at the same time.

Baaghi 3 is a wild throwback to 80’s Hollywood action, especially the finale. Tiger Shroff, the once likeable smiley guy becomes a full-on bada** here, but please let’s keep the slow motion to a minimum next time.

WFG RATING: B

Fox Star Studios presents a Nadiadwala Grandson Entertainment production. Director: Ahmad Khan. Producer: Sajid Nadiadwala. Writers: Sajid Nadiadwala and Farhad Samji; based on the 2012 film “Vettai”, written by N. Linguswamy and Brindha Sarathy. Cinematography: Santhana Krishnan Ravichandran. Editing: Rameshwar S. Bhagat.

Cast: Tiger Shroff, Riteish Deskmukh, Shraddha Kapoor, Ankita Lokhande, Jameel Khoury, Vijay Varma, Jaideep Ahlawat, Navdeep Tomar, Jackie Shroff, Manav Gohil, Sunit Morarjee, Ayaan Zubair Rahmani, Yash Bhojwani.