Review: Dil Dhadakne Do

Posted on June 8, 2015 by Aditya

Zoya Akhtar’s next film is finally here! Dil Dhadakne Do (or DDD, or D3, or Dcubed) is about the problems in the lives of the rich and affluent, which are magically fixed by taking a five-thousand-euro-a-family cruise. If I had five thousand Euros, I really wouldn’t have problems, but these guys have some.

(For all desis mentally converting five thousand euros into local currency, it’s 3.5 lakh Indian Rupees. This is approximately equal to the price of four glasses of Coke at your local multiplex.)

So DDD is about the 30th anniversary of the Mehras (why are all rich fictional families called “the Mehras”?), a dysfunctional Punjabi family living in Mumbai, played by Anil Kapoor and Shefali Shah. Their “iklota waaris” is Ranveer Singh, who takes more pleasure in flying planes than worrying about the weakening of the Dollar, as he should be doing. Their daughter is a budding entrepreneur Priyanka Chopra who is married to Rahul Bose, who belongs to another rich family.

Now rich is an understatement. These people are super rich. By the time you finish reading this sentence, they would’ve earned enough to buy your house and still have spare change to buy a car. Kids throw fits when their private planes are being sold, servants stand beside the dinner table with rotis on a plate. You get the idea.

Aamir Khan lends his voice to a Dog who acts as the narrator. This seems kinda pointless, but maybe Aamir just wanted to be a part of a movie called D3 which didn’t completely suck.

Did you notice how I’ve written over two-hundred words and I haven’t even started the review? Because this is how DDD begins. You feel restless for the movie to lift off in the first half.

This doesn’t mean the film is boring, though. A run-length of nearly three hours seems massive at first, but DDD soars effortlessly. Alternating between moments of laughter and misery, Zoya Akthar ensures the presence of a little humour even in the darkest scenes. This helps in not taking the movie too seriously, which is important not to exhaust your brain.

“Money can’t buy you happiness” is something this movie tries to convey, and it succeeds a fair bit. Life problems isn’t something you generally associate with people, and DDD provides an interesting insight into that dichotomy. You’re shown problems of multiple failing marriages, bankruptcy, patriarchy, love which are basically solved by spending lots of money. So that message was pointless.

This review is turning out to be negative, but that isn’t my viewpoint on the film at all! It’s superbly written (the Kagti/Akhtar partnership strikes again!) with sharp, witty dialogues written by Farhan Akthar. Carlos Catalan returns after working with Zoya on her previous films, picking off where he left off. The shots of the cruise and gorgeous Turkish locales make the film look like a million bucks.

Shankar-Ehsaan-Loy deliver some catchy songs. One of my sequences in the film was the song Galla Goodiyan. While egregiously named, it’s performed by the entire extended cast and is shot in a single take, culminating in everyone meeting at the bar. As soon as the movie ended, I wanted to go back and watch this song again. The camera fluidly traverses while giving you fleeting glimpses of everyone, successfully preserving the entire picture in your mind. An outstanding aesthetic and technical achievement which made we want to stand up and scream “DID ANYONE SEE THAT”.

(This video embedded above isn’t the complete song – which explains the single cut you see midway. But you get the idea.)

With a star-studded cast, lack of chemistry is bound to be an issue. A big payday is obviously ensured, and DDD could very well have been big-name actors just hamming their lines and collect a fat paycheck. Surprisingly, this isn’t so. The actors are perfectly cast, creating an ensemble which is hard to take your eyes off. Everyone hits the right notes with utter perfection. Shefali Shah is brilliant as the depressed housewife who has to put on a facade of happiness for the society. Watch her in a short-but-bittersweet scene where she binges on cupcakes as an act of defiance against her husband’s tiresome quips about her diet. Priyanka Chopra displays a varied range of emotions as the underappreciated daughter of the Mehras, who doesn’t boast about her self-made status. Anushka Sharma is a dancer on a cruise ship and she doesn’t really have much to do other than look pretty, which she does. Ranveer Singh walks away with the best lines in the film. He effuses boyish charm and his cocky nature goes extremely well with his comic timing. There’s a spectacular scene in which a lady threatens to slice her wrists, and Ranveer helpfully points out that wouldn’t achieve that using a butter knife. While this cast sets the bar quite high, they don’t hold a candle to Anil Kapoor who smashes that bar and delivers a career-best performance as an acrimonious, philandering business magnate who never misses a moment to criticise his wife. The cast really holds the film together and in addition to some excellent camerawork, makes it hard to take your eyes off the screen for a second.

While casually mocking the way the privileged take their lives way too seriously, there arises a small problem. The characters are perfectly believable, but I had a hard time relating to any of them. This is eventually, my biggest grouse with the movie. While Zindagi Na Milegi Dobara also showed rich folks, you could connect with them as it wasn’t about the problems of the rich – it was a road-trip with old friends and made me want to call up my school buddies and go backpacking across Europe. In many ways, DDD is the perfect film. The production values are stunning, the direction is expertly done and the writing is top-notch. However, Dil Dhadakne Do ironically fails to connect with your heart because it crucially misses the most important part of any film – soul.

None of this really matters, though as it has no bearing on the ending – which is terrible. It looks like a frantic finale lifted straight out of an Aneez Bazmee movie. I won’t go into the specifics, but it leaves a sour aftertaste after a delectable main course. A pity. It’s almost as if Kagti and Akthar gave up at the end and let the dog use the laptop.

In conclusion, one can harshly say DDD is Zoya’s weakest film. It doesn’t have the emotional gravitas of ZNMD, and it doesn’t come even remotely close to her directorial debut Luck By Chance (few films do, anyway). It still remains a wonderful film and certainly deserves a watch.

Of Movies And Big Screens

Posted on March 31, 2014 by Aditya

Four months into 2014, and I remember that I have a blog which I swore to maintain. Who did I swear to? Myself. Does this mean that I die if I don’t update my blog? No, since I haven’t updated it, and I’m quite alive. Does this meant that swears are pointless? Indeed. But why am I mentioning this? ~~To increase the word-count of this post~~ Because why not? Then why am I writing this post? I know you’re all dying to be blown away by another one of my literary masterpieces and the last few posts have made you hungry for more. And I decided to throw you all a bone.

A few days ago, I was sitting at the Nescafe in the college with Kilol and Fahad, when the topic of movies came up. ~~Fab~~Fahad mentioned that he doesn’t watch English movies because “laptop screen pe movie dekhi nahi jaati“. Kilol seemed to agree with this sentiment, in the sense that everyone is entitled to their own opinions.

After my initial urge to smash Fahad’s head in with a hammer had subsided (not Kilol’s though, she’s cute), I began to wonder about this. What is a movie experience? How would you define one? Movies are unique in way – they’re completely different from other forms of artistic media of expression like books and music such that they’re specifically shot to be shown on the big screen. A book publisher chooses a typeface and font size, but the author may not specifically recommend one. A musician may want his music to sound in a particular way, but may not have issues over its method of distribution (digital or physical media). As long as they reach their customers, they’re happy.

Movies, though. Filmmakers are extremely specific in the way content is delivered. The choice of aspect ratios, the nuances in sound mixing and many more are pondered upon meticulously by them. Because they want the viewer to be lost in their world to guarantee as much immersion as intended. (This is the cornerstone of the smoking-message debate). I understand this.

Certain movies like Avatar and Gravity simply do not work outside the cinema hall. Avatar is probably the best example. I remember watching it in 2D at PVR and being completely blown away by the visuals. So profound was the effect that I convinced myself to ignore the (many) plot holes and errors in the film. Notably, Avatar and Gravity made a lot a money owing to their use of 3D, which convinces many studios to start producing 3D films and converting films shot in 2D to 3D during post-production. The re-release and subsequent success of Titanic and Jurassic Park to name a few reinforces the fact that the audience cherishes a grand movie watching experience. The rise in the sales of large-screen TVs, Blu-Ray players, home-theatre systems further provides proof of this phenomenon.

Till now, this felt like an essay I’d write in an English exam (basically full of bullshit to inflate the word count), but this post isn’t about the others. It’s about how I feel. Looking back at all the hundreds of movies I’ve watched (claiming to be a movie buff in the process), I realized that most of them weren’t seen in the theatre. They were either seen on my TV, laptop or even a tiny phone screen. If you were to hold me at gunpoint and ask me to rattle off my favourite movies of all time, it would closely resemble IMDB’s Top 10 list.

I saw The Shawshank Redemption on my 21″ Sony TV on Zee Studio, which had censored a lot of portions. Just like it did then, Red’s concluding monologue about the Pacific Ocean gives me goose bumps till this date.

At the age of eight, when my beautiful little face was contorted by pockmarks (thanks a lot, VZV), dad brought home a VCD (remember those?) of Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers. My jaw still drops when the Battle of Helm’s Deep is fought.

Owing to its length and severe lack to time due to exam preparation, I saw The Godfather: Part II in four instalments on my 17″ monitor with god-awful speakers and running subtitles to decipher what everyone was saying in Italian accents. Al Pacino’s wide, bulging eyes, when he slapped Diane Keaton right across the face, will remain etched in my mind.

I saw JJ Abrams’s take on Star Trek on my 40” TV which begins with a stunning set-piece immediately followed by some of the most iconic movie themes I’ve had the pleasure to experience. In a hilarious reversal of status quo, I tried to recreate the experience by catching its sequel in the theatres, but nothing came close to capturing the sense of awe I had experienced with the first one.

There are many more additions to this list, notably Psycho, L.A. Confidential, The Dark Knight, The Matrix, Inception, Toy Story 3, Looper, Primer… none of which I managed to catch in the theatre, irrespective of their release dates. They’re all examples powerful, though-provoking, cerebral cinema which I aspire to watch whenever I decide to watch one. And I don’t think I need a cinema hall for that.

If I were a filmmaker, I’d probably be offended by someone remarking they were underwhelmed by my creation simply because they saw it on a smaller screen. By extension, I believe good cinema is only one which can convey the desired emotion irrespective of its medium of distribution. Otherwise, many classics won’t be held in high regard, as it’s safe to assume a majority of the movie-going population hasn’t seen many of them in a cinema hall.

This post/rant ends here. Have a drawn a conclusion? I think I have. But can I say this with absolute certainty? Definitely not. I clearly had higher expectation from this post. Part of me hoped I’d get a clearer answer when I end it, but that hasn’t happened. I can say that Fahad’s opinion is incorrect, but surely cannot vouch for the validity of mine as well. I can feel a sense of frustration welling up inside you, as you realise this post will end in the top wobbling. I’ll leave the decision up to you.

P.S: I wasn’t lying about the head-smashing. I can totally do that.

Head-smashing

P.P.S: It just struck me that Fahad may be referring to poor posture leading to a general sense of discomfort. In which case this rant was totally pointless.

Review: 3 Idiots

Posted on January 23, 2010 by Aditya

3 Idiots

Director: Rajkumar Hirani

Producer: Vidhu Vinod Chopra

Cast: Aamir Khan (Ranchoddas Shyamaldas Chanchad)

Madhavan (Farhan Qureshi)

Sharman Joshi (Raju Rastogi)

Boman Irani (Viru Sahastrabuddhe)

Kareena Kapoor (Pia Sahastrabuddhe)

Omi Vaidya (Chatur Ramalingam)

3 Idiots was definitely the most anticipated film of the year. As usual, Aamir Khan went forward with his plans for world domination by publicizing the movie at a huge level, thus raising the expectations of the masses. But most importantly, the Aamir Khan-Raju Hirani partnership was seen as the harbinger of the revival of the Bollywood economy, which had taken a plunge in 2009.

3 Idiots has an ingenious plot which does seem weird at sometimes, but is acceptable, nevertheless. Aamir Khan plays Ranchoddas “Rancho” Shyamaldas Chanchad, who becomes an idol for his friends and roommates Raju (played by S-her-man Joshi) and, especially, Farhan (played by Mad-havan), in the Imperial College of Engineering (based loosely on the Indian Institute of Technology, Delhi). All three friends are from different backgrounds and are in the college (which has Boman Irani playing Viru, the dean) for their own reasons – both Raju and Farhan “first aana chahte hain“, and Rancho comes for the sole purpose of becoming a good engineer. Towards the middle of the film, Rancho mysteriously disappears, and is hunted down by Raju and Farhan.

As you can see, I didn’t mention Kareena Kapoor anywhere in the plot. Why? Because it’s not important. That’s why. If her character had been ripped apart from the film completely, 3 Idiots would have been considerably shorter by at least twenty minutes, and thus, more enjoyable. In fact, Kareena Kapoor exists because there’s an unwritten rule in Bollywood.

A Bollywood film cannot be a commercial success unless it stars a female lead who plays the male lead’s love interest.

Rajkumar Hirani uses that trademark feel-good-film style direction which we were acquainted with in his successful Munnabhai series. The plot swiftly alternates between light and heavy moments, without boring you one bit. Most of the jokes are clichéd, but the sheer performance given by the film’s cast pulls off even cheap and amateurish jokes superbly, leaving you in splits. Boman Irani is in fine form as the typical college dean, complete with a lifp and high-waist trousers. The fine actor he is, Aamir Khan pulls off the easy-going, happy-go-lucky Rancho’s character effortlessly, without letting you have the impression that he is forty, and is playing a character of nearly half his age. Madhavan and and Sharman Joshi deliver good performances too, as does Kareena Kapoor, although she has a small role to play).

He's so obsessed with Math, that he's mastered a parabolic smile

But 3 Idiots suffers from some weird WTF (pardon my French) moments. Rancho’s “All Iz Well” [sic] mantra appears to be a nice little way to calm your heart and deal with situations, but it is taken a tad

Very Inconspicuous

too far, where the mere utterance of the word causes a baby to kick in its mother’s tummy. There’s a scene involving a paralyzed man being driven on a scooter to hospital without considering the fact that some infection will lead to certain death. Not only that, but the scooter rams straight into Fortis Hospital, into the patients’ ward, brushing security as if it were trivial to concentrate on such matters. As even the Father of the Internet pointed out, it showcases how “important” security is for Fortis. There are shots where the camera deliberately hangs over a Fortis sign, or an AirTel USB Internet modem (twice). But the most unbelievable bit of all was the delivery of a table using a vacuum cleaner running on car batteries on a ping-pong table. Yes. You heard it. A ping-pong table, which, incidentally, also fell apart during one of the scenes in the film. Rancho’s character is far too perfect for the real world. He goes on to become the most successful of them all, despite his happy-go-lucky attitude. He tops the class, wins everybody’s hearts, makes parents happy, forces Farhan to change his entire career, becomes a super-successful scientist and still gets the girl? I don’t think so.

Most of the story is told in a flashback form, with Farhan reciting the story and skipping over to reality at regular intervals. The suspense of what happens next keeps you hooked on.

But you know what really saves 3 Idiots? You know what? Not only the light-hearted moments, but the real star and revelation Omi Vaidya, who plays Chatur Ramalingam, and is the butt of most jokes. An NRI whose knowledge of Hindi language is negligible, Chatur is the serious guy in the class, always studying and aiming to become the champion. In addition to his arresting performance, 3 Idiots works because it makes an emotional connection with the audience, and wittily stressing at pointed jabs towards our grading system. The message it ultimately delivers is true, and something that we need to think about. Which is why, friends, 3 Idiots is a movie you simply have to watch for the sheer entertainment it offers. Rajkumar Hirani has made better films, and I have seen better films.

Watch the 3 Idiots Theatrical Trailer

Detailed Ratings [Out of 10]

Plot: 7

Acting: 10

Screenplay: 8

Direction: 8

Feel: 9

Overall Rating: 8.4/10 (Very Good)

And, by the way, 3 Idiots has become so famous, BoingBoing has a post about it, urging readers to go and see it, even if they don’t speak English.

International Movie Database : 8.1/10

Times of India (Nikhat Kazmi) : 5/5

Hindustan Times (Mayank Shekhar) : 3.5/5

BollywoodHungama (Taran Adarsh) : 4.5/5

CNN-IBN (Rajeev Masand) : 3/5

Review: Slumdog Millionaire

Posted on January 19, 2009 by Aditya

Slumdog Millionare

Director: Danny Boyle

Co-Director (Indian): Loveleen Tandan

Cast: Jamal Malik (Dev Patel)

Latika (Freida Pinto)

Prem Kumar (Anil Kapoor)

The Police Inspector (Irrfan Khan)

Javed (Mahesh Manjrekar)

Music: A.R Rahman

I’ve been waiting for this big moment for a long, long time. And finally. I got to see Danny Boyle’s eagerly awaited drama Slumdog Millionaire. Was it worth the wait? You bet.

Based on Vikas Swarup’s novel Q & A, Slumdog Millionaire is actually a two-hour episode of Who Wants To Be A Millionare? or Kaun Banega Crorepati. Its how about Jamal Malik, a guy living in a Mumbai slum, manages to come up to ten million. Just a day before the twenty million question, Jamal Malik is arrested, and interrogated about the happenings of his life. That is Slumdog Millionaire.

Jamal Malik is on the verge of creating history. And how did he do it? He cheated? No. He was asked only those questions, of which he knew the answers. Sheer luck. Jamal explains nearly every answer, which unveils the struggle he had to face living in a Mumbai slum, and the price he had to pay for being a Muslim. Boyle has captured the slums beautifully; every detail is clear – from clothes drying near the railway track to rudimentary toilets (which are actually houses on stilts with a large hole in the centre to let the … excreta … fall down. Jamal escapes from a slum, and is taken along with his brother Salim and friend Latika to an orphanage, where they are forced to beg. They are taught to sing, then blinded, as blind singers get double the sympathy, double the money. Salim and Jamal escape from here too, and spend their lives selling goods in the trains, stealing food from compartments, etc. etc. All this seems horrible, but yet, this is the harsh reality of the slum life. You learn to realise the horrible existence of the needy.

Not a moment to bore you. Not a moment to take your eyes off screen when there are such fine actors. There’s drama, and comedy too. I especially love that scene where Jamal plays a guide and explains about the Taj Mahal to the tourists, describing it as a five star hotel “with the swimming pool”. He later becomes a good guide, whilst his brother steals shoes and ransacks Mercedes-Benzes.

In the entire story, you see the characters develop. Jamal grows up to be honest, but easily influenced. Salim, his brother, on the other hand, develops into a mean and merciless fellow, taking to the underworld and drinking at the age of 15, I guess. That is why the plot is so solid. You feel the characters growing as the film progresses. There are some unbelievable things, however. How the hell do Jamal, Salim, Latika and others speak English so fluently, even when they are uneducated and from a slum? How does Jamal give know the writer of the song Darshan Do Ghanshyaam even when Surdas was never mentioned during the entire sequence?

Although these questions remain unanswered, the sheer detail of the film keeps you engrossed. I’ve already that mentioned that above. Jamal learns to live his life, even when he is plagued with no parents and poverty. The main quest of he film is not to win twenty million bucks, nor is it to be rich or famous, but it is to find Latika, Jamal’s lost love.

There aren’t any songs (except in the end – that Jaya He one), but the background score is great, as it is a fusion of indigenous and foreign music. The screenplay rocks, too! Scenes from the past and the present flash continuously, which keep you glued to your seat, as you wait till the suspense to be unfolded.

Detailed Ratings [Out of 5]

Plot: 4

Acting: 5

Music: 5

Direction: 4

Screenplay: 5

Rating: 4.6/5 [Brilliant!]

Edit:

The Oscars were given out today, and Slumdog Millionaire won eight out of ten nominations, including Best Motion Picture, Best Director, Best Song [Jaya He, Rahman!], Best Original Music Score [Rahman again!], Best Sound Mixing, Best Cinematography and Best Adapted Screenplay. Hooray!

Also Smile Pinki, a movie with an India connect, won an Oscar for the best Documentary Short.

Review: Rab Ne Bana Di Jodi

Posted on December 25, 2008 by Aditya

Rab Ne Bana Di Jodi

Director: Aditya Chopra

Cast: Shah Rukh Khan [Surinder Sahni]

Anushka Sharma [Taani]

Vinay Pathak [Bobby]

Review

Aditya Chopra returns to direction after nearly eight years, to uphold the glory and magic of the Yash Raj Banner. Yash Raj’s most recent films, including Mere Yaar Ki Shaadi Hai, Dil To Pagal Hai, Mohabbatein, Saathiya, Neal n’ Nikki, Jhoom Barabar Jhoom, Laaga Chunari Mein Daag, Aaja Nachle, Tashan, Thoda Pyaar Thoda Magic and Roadside Romeo have bombed at the box office, and they turned to SRK, the “King Khan”, and also Aditya Chopra, to some extent, to save them some face.

Rab Ne Bana Di Jodi starts off as a narrative of an middle-aged, middle-class guy Surinder Sahni [played by Shah Rukh Khan] who works for Punjab Power, an electricity company. Rab di sau, he is completely devoid of love in his life. By Rab’s grace, he goes to his school teacher’s daugher’s Taani’s [played by Anuskha Sharma] marriage, and just like Rab as Rab wanted it, he fell instantly in love with her. Unfortunately, her fiance dies due to a road accident on that ill-fated day of her marriage, and out of Rab’s will, Taani’s father too suffers a severe heart attack, and has a last wish before going to Rab, that he gets his daughter Taani married to Surinder, the best match for her.

See how it feels? The word Rab, which translates into God, is used exactly eighteen times in the entire film. Try suing me if the number is wrong. I haven’t included the songs or the background music. Rab is spoken five times within the initial one-hundred-and-seventy-two seconds. Irritating? The film’s just begun.

Rab Ne Bana Di Jodi is about this clumsy dork Surinder Sahni. The character is potrayed effortlessly by SRK, acting superbly in every scene. There’s not a single moment when you want to take your eyes off him. Living in a large kothi near the amazing Golden Temple in Amritsar (which looks absolutely stunning and gleams in the sun, excellent camera work!), Surinder is a middle-class guy who agrees to marry Taani, as her fiance dies on the day of her marriage. He wants to see Taani happy and gleeful like before, unlike her current mood of sadness and gloom. There are moments when Surinder wants to place some signs of love for Taani, but stops himself, reminding himself about her tragedy. There is this awesome scene when his Transcend 4GB Slider Pen Drive is inserted in his Compaq laptop running Office 2007 on Windows XP, and Taani turns up. In his excitement and clumsiness, he stands up, forgetting that the pen drive was strung to his neck, and thus overturning his lappie. Only SRK can pull of such an expression with extreme perfection.

So when she asks him about joining Dancing Jodi (Mumbai ki bahut badi dancing cumpanee), he agrees immediately. Taking his sidekick Bobby’s help (played superbly by Vinay Pathak), he transforms himself into a metrosexual guy Raj, as he wants to see Taani in her original naachti phudakti style, as she was before marriage. Kyunki yeh kahani Rab (and Aditya Chopra) likh rahe hain, he becomes her dance partner for a competition Dancing Jodi.

What follows is confusion and drama, when Surinder tries to hide Raj from Taani. She eventually falls in love with Raj, as she begins to see Rab in him, and is in a dilemma, whether to run away with her lover, or stay with her boring husband, oblivious of the fact that both are the same persons. Meanwhile Bobby urges Surinder to reveal the truth about Raj’s identity, but he Surinder refrains from doing so, as he wants to see whom Taani really loves. There are some emotional moments, some cliched scenes, and some boring segments, but Rab Ne Bana Di Jodi has a fair amount of well-choreographed foot-tapping numbers. There is this song called Hum Hain Rahi Pyaar Ke Phir Milenge Chalte Chalte, the line SRK often repeats in the movie, which uses lyrics from songs of Raj Kapoor, Dev Anand, Shammi Kapoor, Rajesh Khanna and Rishi Kapoor (yes, in that same order!) to create a medley under a tune of their own. The effects is quite good, and I liked it, though it did look strange. There is also this juvenile bike scene, where Taani does some Dhoom action with Raj sitting behind, to chase another Jodi which picked up a fight with them. Quite funny!

Finally, when Taani has become ready to run away with Raj on the final day of the competition, she begins to see Rab in Surinder, and decides against it. The climax is absolutely stupid, when Taani realises that she has been fooled, as both Raj is Surinder in actuality.

Anushka Sharma acts pretty well, but her poorly written role makes her unable to outshine Shah Rukh Khan’s brilliance in playing Surinder. Vinay Pathak is absolutely outstanding, and potrays is character of a sidekick and barber fantastically. Hats off to him! However, the script is flawed and the story doesn’t know where its going. Although I would not recommend spending lots of money on this film, do watch it in a multiplex if you must, so that you have a comfortable chair to relax on, during the boring parts of the movie.

Detailed Ratings [Out of 5]

Plot: 2

Acting: 4

Cinematography: 3

Music: 3

Direction: 3

Rating: 3/5 (Good)

Review: Race

Posted on November 30, 2008 by Aditya

Race

Director: Abbas-Mustan

Producer: Kumar & Ramesh S. Taurani

Original Cast: Fardeen Khan/John Abraham [Rajiv Singh]

Priyanka Chopra [Sonia]

Ajay Devgan/Akshay Kumar [Robert D’ costa]

Mallika Sherawat [Mini]

Saif Ali Khan [Ranvir Singh]

Katrina Kaif [Sophia]

Final Cast: Akshaye Khanna [Rajiv Singh]

Bipasha Basu [Sonia]

Anil Kapoor [Robert D’ costa]

Sameera Reddy [Mini]

Saif Ali Khan [Rajvir Singh]

Katrina Kaif [Sophia]

Cars and Horses 😀

Review

Race released way back in March. But I saw it only when it premiered on UTV Movies on Saturday. I had great expectations from it, as my friends had described it as a racy and action packed, superb movie. They’re not my friends any more.

Race is clearly inspired from the likes of The Fast and the Furious. Although the plot is different and is rather good, Abbas-Mustan tend to concentrate more on the cars and racing. There are a humongous number of cars in the movie, with the characters arriving in Porsches and leaving in BMWs. After the failure of 36 China Town and Naqaab, the director duo is back with the original idea of making a movie with twists and turns that has worked for them before. Sadly, the twists in the plot are so many, that at the end of the movie, you often tend to forget who was with whom and double-crossed whom when and went with whom. Cliche.

The soundtrack is great. Pritam has given good music and lyrics are not so bad. However, the background score, given by Salim-Sulaiman, appears to have been copied from Mission Impossible.

The entire movie is set in Durban and Cape Town, in South Africa, but the cinematography fails to capture the exotic and beautiful locations, concentrating only on the blocky and wooden faces of the characters.

The acting is pretty bad. Saif Ali Khan is as expressive as a block of wood, wearing the same grumpy expression throughout the movie. Akshaye Khanna does no better as a drunkard. Katrina Kaif is beautiful, but still has no improvement in her acting. Anil Kapoor, as the cop, seems to have every fruit imaginable. His acting too is a little childish, but thats probably because of the poorly designed role he has. His sidekick Sameera Reddy is unneccesary for the plot, but is only added to give some pointless humour to this otherwise serious and action packed script.

Race is actually a good movie to watch. It works as the audience remains glued to their seats just to know the end. If you’re able to put up with mad dialogues such as “Maroonga Main Nahin, Marega Woh” and “Tum Hamesha Mujhe Harane Ki Sochte The, Aur Main Jeetne Ki“, you might be mildly satisfied. Race is just timepass.