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What would you do if a six-year-old girl walked up to your doorstep and claimed you were her long lost father? That’s pretty much the theme of this week’s Bollywood release, “Rowdy Rathore” starring Akshay Kumar and Sonakshi Sinha.

Chaos and confusion ensue as the father in question, Shiva, happens to have a lookalike: a fearless cop called Vikram Singh Rathore.

The film, in which Mr. Kumar plays both Shiva and Rathore, was hotly anticipated as it was expected to mark the star’s return to action cinema. Some critics have hailed it as an action-packed entertainer, but a few others have dismissed it as loud and inconclusive. Here’s a roundup of what critics had to say:

“Entertainment, entertainment, entertainment thy name is Rowdy Rathore,” film critic Taran Adarsh wrote on Bollywood Hungama.

Labeling the movie as a “full-blown masala entertainer,” Mr. Adarsh praised its “swift narrative,” “spirited execution,” “charming” score and “witty” dialogues.

“The masses are sure to go into raptures!” he wrote, adding that the stunts were “the hallmark of the enterprise.”

Impressed with the star cast’s “superlative” performances, Mr. Adarsh gave the movie four stars out of five. “On the whole, Rowdy Rathore is designed to magnetize the masses in hordes… If you savor typical masaledaar fares, this one should be on your have-to-watch listing for certain. Dhamaal entertainer!” he concluded.

A review on Sahara’s One India Entertainment website said the movie is a “must watch.” It adds that an in-form Mr. Kumar provides raw action while Ms. Sinha plays a “lovable, charming, yet impish character very well.”

Though the review noted that the film came to “illogical” conclusions, it argued that its “desi packaging,” zestful score and action packed sequences overshadowed its narrative flaws. Rowdy Rathore “will surely impress you with [Mr. Kumar’s] desi punches, colorful songs and lots of romance,” the review read, adding that it “has the potential to set the cash registers ringing.”

But not everyone was impressed.

Shomini Sen of Zee News found the film “too rowdy.”

“Yes, the action is there. In huge dollops, but somehow lacks the punch,” she wrote, adding the movie as “a typical south Indian pot boiler.”

Ms. Sen thought the narrative was slow paced and criticized it for taking “too long to establish the main plot and too little time to establish the love story.” “Most of the scenes lack logic. The violence is gory and in some places cringe-worthy.”



While the critic thought Ms. Sinha’s performance “fails to make any sort of mark,” she was impressed with Mr. Kumar’s flamboyant role. “Watch it for Akshay if you must. But don’t expect his usual antics, it is clearly not there,” she concluded.

NDTV’s film critic Saibal Chatterjee found the “shrill” action film “riddled with an array of loud, lame and specious contrivances.”

“Rowdy Rathore employs narrative elements that hark back to a bygone era of Bollywood potboilers: two men who look like each other without any apparent reason, a bunch of baddies that snarl and snap at the slightest provocation… Cops [who] shiver in front of [Mr. Kumar] and his lecherous men.”

Slamming the film’s only romantic track as a “mere window-dressing” to stage romance between the lead pair, Mr. Chatterjee went on to call the first half of the film “insignificant.”

“Go for it if you must, but don’t expect the earth from it,” the reviewer concluded, giving it just two stars out of five.