Kathmandu:

The Legend of Zorro

(Adventure/Action)

Cast: Antonio Banderas, Catherine Zeta Zones, Rufus Sewell, and Adrian Alonso

Direction: Martin Campbell

Showing at: Kumari

It seems that even after a hiatus of seven years, the exploits of Zorro still remain freshly etched on our minds. So much so that when the swashbuckling hero comes live into action with dosage of derring-do, we still hate to miss a blink. There is, however, one thing that makes us a bit sceptical: Has Campbell exhausted his creativity so as to resort to a sequel rather than dishing out something new? That too after seven long years? What made him rest on his laurels for that long? Odds cast aside, there isn’t much to gripe about as you sit through this flick.

It’s still 1950 California at the cusp of Independence. California is all set to be integrated as the thirty-first independent state of the Union but baddies don’t seem to savour the idea so much. Well, it’s very natural to guess who emerges the natural candidate to save the state from the clasp of the barbarous baddies.

We’ve loved Zorro (Antonio Banderas) in the original, who somersaulted and unsheathed his sword in the most rumbustious fashion as the scion of the master Zorro. Now when Zorro comes this one more time, how can we but just feign to not take any notice of the chivalrous bloke? On the contrary, we expect him to be a better acrobat than ever before. And that’s where we get a bit disappointed.

But Campbell interweaves a different ingredient to compensate the part that’s noticeably missing. It’s the tempestuous relationship between Zorro and Elena (Catherine Zeta Zones) that makes it into a moving story of love and chivalry. But Zorro can’t afford to shrug off his responsibility though he values his family as much, at least till the baddies are beaten to a pulp and the squares settled. And you can’t deny that the chemistry that created dynamite still crackles.

And imagine, father Zorro who never admits his identity to his son Joaquin (Adrian Alonso), ending up as the best backslapping buddies. Though there are sessions of goofy interventions that seem animated out of a comic strip, they nonetheless seem to be a part of the legend that we’ve always wanted to believe. And how can we just not mention Catherine Zeta Zones, who despite the years she’s added on, still makes up for the drool and oogle quotient.