I havent seen Phone-Booth, so whether the film really copies scenes or dialogues I aint sure at all. Now coming to the film, the story of Knock-out deals with a person(Sanjay Dutt) whose identity is unknown and on one particular day, he decides to make a random call at a phonebooth when Bacchu(Irfan Khan) is there. And then starts a series of orders which if not followed could lead to death of Bacchu. Why, all such acts are done, and where does it eventually lead to, is what the story is about.

The best thing about the film is that its short and the songs are kept away thankfully from the narration. Actually, if one notices, the film's narration very much follows the path of A Wednesday, the only difference being that Knock out is much more a entertainer then a thriller.

Mani Shankar does well as far as direction goes, he is let down by average writing and poor dialogues. Editing is proper. Screenplay is good, there is just one way story and no additional hiccups to lessen the impact.

There are some over the top scenes, like the audience keenly appreciating the tv coverage or clapping. One may argue it as cinematic liberty but it looked kinda of funny to see.

Performances wise,

Sanjay Dutt is good, not at his best though.

Irfan Khan is amazing, even though the hairstyle looks a bit wierd but his acting is bang on. Love the sequence where he dances on the ringtune.

Kangana Ranaut's dialogue delivery is bad in the film, cant understand what went wrong specially when she is having a very good run of form. Leaving that apart, she was fine as she portrayed the role of a journalist desperate for a breaking news.

Sushant Singh was good to start with but his later part was full of overacting. He needs to restrain himself, he has been very good as a actor in past.

Gulshan Grover is fine in small cameo. Apoorva Lakhia is stylish in his debut special apperance.


Overall, Knock Out works only in terms of entertainment that it keeps providing despite some poor writing and funny dialogues, For instance "Not accepted" made to "Note Accepted".  Aneways, its not that bad a movie as it has been made out by everyone, if not in theatre watch it once on T.V.


Rating : 2.75 Out of 5