The Hero: Love Story of a Spy

Released Apr 9, 2003

3h 3m

Mystery & Thriller

Action

List

50%

Tomatometer

6 Reviews

46%

Audience Score

250+ Ratings

A Hindu secret agent (Sunny Deol) tries to prevent fundamentalist Pakistanis from building a nuclear bomb.

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Kevin Thomas

Los Angeles Times

It may be corny, unintentionally amusing at times, but it is also a lot of fun.

Rated: 3/5

May 1, 2003

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Edward Crouse

Village Voice

Nothing if not a scary surge of Indian nationalism.

Apr 15, 2003

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Lawrence Van Gelder

New York Times

This colorful Indian spy adventure constitutes the cinematic equivalent of the delightful and inconsequential escapism of a 700-page summer beach novel.

Rated: 3/5

Apr 15, 2003

Full Review

David Chute

L.A. Weekly

Deol is a brawny action icon with a soulful countenance, and there is nothing quite like this stuff when all the elements click smoothly into place.

May 1, 2003

Full Review

Maitland McDonagh

TV Guide

All it's no more preposterous or jingoistic than American big-budget action thrillers, except for the musical numbers, which are a given.

Rated: 2.5/5

Apr 15, 2003

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Audience Member

Heart touching songs! I liked them!

Rated 4 out of 5 stars

02/06/23

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Audience Member

Day: Monday Date: 19 May 2003 Time: 10.30pm With: Mom, Dad, Azeem On: VCD Name: THE HERO: LOVE STORY OF A SPY Where was Sunny Deol in the movie?

Rated 2 out of 5 stars

02/22/23

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Audience Member

the BEST movie EVER EXISTED....i love this movie with all my heart and i strongly/highly recommend this movie. im a serious movie fan and i know what great movies are and this is one of the them. plus i love india movies. WATCH THIS MOVIE....the best love story EVER>>>>

Rated 5 out of 5 stars

01/23/23

Full Review

Audience Member

Good movie. Interesting story plot. Great cast- Sunny Deol, Preity Zinta, Priyanka Chopra, and Amrish Puri. Worthy!

Rated 3.5 out of 5 stars

02/24/23

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Audience Member

beautiful preity zinta bollywood film! her most adorable character ever:) very cute love story but also has plenty of acting. dealing with the conflict of india & pakistan trying to control kashmir & bobby deols charactor trying to stop the pakistani's from stealing their own nuclear bombs. amazing music & playback singers!

Rated 5 out of 5 stars

02/09/23

Full Review

Audience Member

There was a short discussion before starting the movie as to whether we should watch this in Mandarin & subtitles or dubbed in English. We chose the latter - no real reason really. It did give me a tiny giggle when lips and words were out of sync. The action scenes are a lot like Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon but did not match or exceed it technically - so basically disappointing in this respect. Apparently the director had never done an action film before and I hate to say it but this probably had some effect - still if you aren't looking for originality then this is still a solid piece of work. I haven't looked in to who was responsible for choreographing the action sequences but I would have expected the producers to at least compensate for the director's lack of experience with something extra ...? Stylistically - wonderful! The costumes and scenery are breathtaking and this is the absolute highlight overall. Storywise, Vanessa and I were like *huh?* are we missing something? It was really hard to grasp the big picture from the many sequences and story turns. We got that Jet Li's character got to move closer to the king for each of the 3 assassins that he supposedly killed, and we got the meaning of the coloured robes and the theme that sometimes success means losing your life for a cause rather than taking others' lives. We also got (well credit to Vanessa really) that there were 3 story versions; the nameless warrior's version, the king's version and finally the actual version. (Notice the recurring theme of 3?). Still, Mark fell asleep and my eyelids kept drooping from the huge effort. Maybe it was a cultural thing - in the special features Quentin Tarantino talks to Jet Li and they touch on the topic of how some Westerners don't get some Hong Kong martial arts films and ironically some Hong Kong audiences don't get some films made for Western audiences. I was glad in the end that we did watch it dubbed - imagine trying to keep up with both the storyline and the subtitles! I'm really not sure of Jet Li as an actor. Technically he is amazing - he is so fast and fluid - yet as an actor there is something almost robotic about him and I don't see a great range of facial expressions, when compared to Jackie Chan, who can be relied on for more than just great choreography - he also gives great performance even if it is mostly comedic. I think it must be really rare to find an "action" actor with both attributes - great physical & dramatic acting - or to even find a supporting cast that can compensate for the action star's weaker acting ability. I've heard House of Flying Daggers is better so I might seek this one out next time I wanna watch another martial arts movie.

Rated 4 out of 5 stars

02/20/23

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Anil Sharma

Director

Sunny Deol

Major Arun Khanna

Preity Zinta

Reshma

Kabir Bedi

Mr. Zakaria

Amrish Puri

I.S.I Chief Ishak Khan

Arif Zakaria

Actor

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Synopsis

A Hindu secret agent (Sunny Deol) tries to prevent fundamentalist Pakistanis from building a nuclear bomb.

Director: Anil Sharma
Genre: Mystery & Thriller, Action
Original Language: Hindi
Release Date (Theaters): Apr 9, 2003, Original
Runtime: 3h 3m