'Race' - An okay entertainer

'Race' - An okay entertainer

Thriller Hindi Movie

Starring

Saif Ali Khan .... Ranvir Singh

Akshaye Khanna .... Rajeev Singh

Katrina Kaif .... Sophia

Bipasha Basu .... Sonia

Anil Kapoor .... Robert D’ Costa

Sameera Reddy .... Mini

Director : Abbas-Mastan

Musician : Pritam

By Nikhil Kumar

Subtlety and restraint have never found a place in the movies of director duo Abbas-Mastan . Their latest thriller ‘Race’ is so much crammed with unexpected twists and turns that after a while you naturally begin to expect the unexpected from the film.

And that is the trap that any suspense thriller can fall into. In a bid to shock the viewer, ‘Race’ keeps unraveling one surprise after another. So much so that after a while the surprises lose their shock value and the movie ceases to be a thriller.

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This is the only major problem with ‘Race’. Apart from this the movie is a fine entertainer with pretty good action sequences and a superb performance from Akshaye Khanna. He is the man you would love to hate in the film.

Set in picturesque cities of Durban and Cape Town, ‘Race’ tells the story of two brothers – Ranvir Singh ( Saif Ali Khan ) and Rajeev Singh ( Akshaye Khanna ).

Ranvir, the eldest of the two, is a shrewd businessman who owns a ranch named Stallions where horses are bred for races. He is a fierce competitor and he doesn’t forgive anyone who double-crosses him.

Rajeev, on the other hand, is more interested in alcohol than family business. He likes to wake up to a glass of beer every morning to recover from the hangover of previous night’s drinks.
Sonia ( Bipasha Basu ), a fashion model, walks into Ranvir’s life and wins over his heart. On the other hand is Sophia ( Katrina Kaif ), Ranvir’s gorgeous secretary who is always vying to get his attention, but without any success.

The ball is set rolling when Rajeev falls for Sonia and promises his brother that he would quit drinking if she agrees to marry him. Ranvir, like any true-blue big brother, sacrifices his love and becomes a matchmaker between the two.

But beneath the surface, evil plans are taking shape in the minds of the protagonists. One of the two brothers will die. And the other will inherit the huge insurance claim of 100 million.
The murder takes place. Enters detective RD or Robert D’Costa ( Anil Kapoor ) and his pretty and dumb secretary Mini ( Sameera Reddy ) who try to crack the case and get to the bottom of the mystery.

‘Race’ has a riveting first half, when the characters are introduced and their murky sides revealed. The plot in this half leaves many open ends, to be connected and explained when the mystery is finally unraveled in the end. The movie reaches its high point when one of the brothers is pushed from the terrace of a high-rise building.

This momentum continues for some more reels in the second half. But then the film’s plot takes a serpentine route and passes through many unexpected bends, some of which are reasonable while some are deliberately contrived to surprise the viewer.

That is when Abbas-Mustan, the men in white, show their true ‘colours’. The director duo doesn’t care to be subtle. They pull out all the stops to squeeze in as many twists in the plot even when there wasn’t any need. As the plot meanders through its many turns, it begins to lose its credibility. And you resign yourself to the fact that anything could happen. Even the dead can resurrect. After all, it’s Easter time.

Akshaye Khanna deserves a special mention for a terrific performance in the film. He is the scene stealer. His pursed lips, his sarcastic smile, his raised brow and his funny demeanor make even the villainy of his character likeable. He plays the guy who has something funny to say even in the face of grave danger.

Saif Ali Khan is glum and uptight for most part of the movie (perhaps the requirement of his role). But you sense that his heart is not in playing his character. And he looks a little overweight in the action scenes when jumps from dizzy heights.

Katrina Kaif is incredibly good looking. But she is equally incredibly bad at acting. Bipasha Basu has more meat in her role (both figuratively and literally). But her role doesn’t put any great histrionic demand on her.

Anil Kapoor is becoming quite predictable playing the desi-guy-inside-foreign-suit kind of roles. Yet he adds some good humour by playing his fruit-munching detective. Sameera Reddy is required to look sexy and sound dumb. She does both convincingly.

Two more driving forces of ‘Race’ are Pritam’s music and Allan Amin’s stunts. The car accident at the very beginning of the flick has been choreographed superbly. However, the freefalls and giant leaps could have been better. You can notice the use of cables in a stunt when Saif jumps to save Bipasha from a killer.

Pritam’s music is loud and rocking and suits the mood of the film.

All in all, ‘Race’ is not a bad watch at all. Yes, it could have been much better if the director duo had incorporated more intelligent twists in the story.

Don’t go expecting anything cerebral and you might end up enjoying ‘Race’.

Rating: **1/2

Black And White

Black And White - Hindi Movie

Starring :
Anil Kapoor.... Professor Rajan Mathur
Anurag Sinha.... Numer Qazi
Aditi Sharma.... Shagufta
Shefali Shah.... Roma Mathur

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Black And White Review : Worth a watch

Subhash Ghai, the proverbial showman and the maker of many memorable masala movies, comes up with a pertinent, hard-hitting, slice-of-life film, appropriately titled ‘Black And White’.
The film is about a sombre and brooding suicide bomber who has a change of heart and mind after witnessing the harmony-in-diversity of the friendly people of Chandni Chowk.

Newcomer Anurag Sinha plays a fidayeen from an Afghan terror camp who comes to Delhi on a deadly mission. His target is Red Fort. And he will execute his mission on August 15.

While in Delhi, the would-be bomber takes shelter in the house of a polite and wise poet (Habib Tanvir) in Chandni Chowk and passes himself off as Numer Qazi, a victim of Gujarat riots. In the same locality live the Urdu professor Rajan Mathur (Anil Kapoor) and his sharp-tongued social activist wife Roma ( Shefali Shah ).

Rajan, who sternly believes in religious tolerance and secularism, takes a liking to the quiet and grim Numer.

In the days leading up to his mission, Numer encounters a number of friendly characters in Chandni Chowk, including a pretty girl Shagufta who falls for him. The sullen and stone-hearted Numer struggles with his emotions. On top of it, professor Rajan, his wife Roma and the genteel octogenarian poet give Numer a different perspective of life.

As days pass, Numer finds himself in an unexpected dilemma. On one hand are his deep-rooted fundamentalist beliefs. On the other hand is a faint spark of love, and values of mutual tolerance and humanity that take root in his heart.

‘Black And White’ could easily have fallen into the trap of being a preachy film. Though the film does have a few such moments, it mostly manages to steer clear of the expected, in-your-face clichés that a Bollywood film with a message of communal harmony could have easily pandered to. And the credit for this should go to its director Subhash Ghai, who shows commendable restraint in handling the sensitive subject.

The only time Ghai seems to lose his grip over the plot is in the last half hour of the film when the screenplay is contrived to the director’s convenience. It is in a few of these portions leading up to the climax that the movie becomes unreal and unconvincing.

The film’s leading man Anurag Sinha exudes a simmering intensity befitting his character of a terrorist. The newcomer has few dialogues in the film, yet he gives a palpable persona to his Numer. A notable debut indeed.

Anil Kapoor keeps himself carefully restrained for most part of his role. Shefali Shah is terrific in a brief role. Aditi Sharma just about manages not to ham. Habib Tanvir towers with his screen presence and imposing voice.

‘Black And White’ deals with a very relevant issue in the times of terrorism and racial profiling. Not only does the movie gives a message of hope that terrorists could be reformed, it also questions the way the state goes about dealing with terrorism.

It is an honest and commendable effort by Ghai. And it deserves to be seen at least once.

Rating: ***

'Jodhaa Akbar' -Enchanting but exhausting

Starring

Aishwarya Rai .... Jodha Bai

Hrithik Roshan .... Akbar

Kulbhushan Kharbanda .... Raja Bharmal

Sonu Sood .... Sujamal

Ila Arun .... Maham Anga

Director : Ashutosh Gowarikar

Lyricist : Javed Akhtar

Musician : A R Rahman

By Naresh Kumar Deoshi

Ashutosh Gowarikar’s film ‘Jodhaa Akbar’ enchants you and exhausts you at the same time.
The movie has several great sequences ingeniously conceived by the no-nonsense Gowarikar. But as the film crosses two and half hours of its running time, you begin to notice Gowarikar’s over-indulgence in the subject. Once the slowly blooming romance between the titular lovers reaches its consummation point, the movie begins to drag. From then on, your interest begins to wane.

Granted that the film is unparalleled in its opulence and visual splendor. The Mughal art and architecture has been recreated in the film with meticulous precision. On top of it there are superb (to put it modestly) performances by the leading cast – Hrithik Roshan and Aishwarya Rai . But it is hard to overlook the aberrations that blotch the otherwise flawless screenplay.

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A couple of such aberrations come right after the film hits its crescendo: the point where the love between Jodhaa and Akbar is consummated in a brilliantly shot song sequence. From then on the plot seems to slip away from the director’s grip.

The sequence I am talking about has Akbar’s own brother-in-law Shariffuddin staging a rebellion against the emperor. Ashutosh Gowarikar shows a shocking lack of subtlety as Jodhaa, along with a retinue of orderlies, rides a long distance on a horse to inform her husband of an underhand plot of the enemy to kill her prodigal brother, Sujamal ( Sonu Sood ). And she arrives at the battlefield just at the time when her fatally wounded brother is about to breath his last. What follows is the same beaten-to-death cliché of a repentant brother dying in the arms of his sister while mouthing lofty dialogues.

Such unsubtle and filmi treatment of a crucial sequence was not expected from a filmmaker whose past works I have greatly admired.

‘Jodhaa Akbar’ has more such sequences that spoil the otherwise beautiful and enchanting film.
Set in 16th century India, the film begins with the kid emperor Jalaluddin Mohammad presiding over the wars fought on his behalf by the bestial commander Bairam Khan who slays the enemies of the Mughal kingdom without as much as a flinch.

The kingdom expands as the emperor grows to be a handsome king Akbar (Hrithik Roshan) with an empathetic heart for his enemies.

Many Rajputana kingdoms feel threatened by the fast expanding empire of Jalaluddin Akbar. One such Rajput, king Bharmal ( Kulbhushan Kharbanda ) of Amer offers his daughter Jodhaa’s hand to Jalaluddin as a marriage of alliance between two kingdoms.

But the defiant Hindu princess (Aishwarya Rai) puts forth her conditions to Akbar before and after marriage. The conditions are that she should be allowed to practice her religion and worship lord Krishna. The post marriage condition is that Akbar won’t touch her until he has won her heart over.

Thereafter begins the beautiful relation between Akbar and his self-respecting wife as they draw closer to each other in tender moments and are driven apart by cunning plots of those who don’t want their love to succeed.

These moments and this gradual flowering of love between Jodhaa and Akbar is the USP of ‘Jodhaa Akbar’. And it is in such sequences Gowarikar shows his incredible skill as an imaginative filmmaker.

However, my most favourite sequence from the film comes at the fag end of the sufi song Khwaja Mere Khwaja when Akbar goes into a trance-like state while listening to the devotional ode to Khwaja Moinuddin Chisti. He rises from his seat, walks into the whirling dervishes, looks to the sky and begins to whirl. I swear I got goose bumps watching this sequence. This, for me, is Gowarikar at his best.

But the filmmaker disappoints in the second half. In this half there are moments when the film’s plot begins to crumble under its own weight.

Now to the performances.

Hats off to Hrithik Roshan for playing the Mughal emperor with great finesse and restraint. The way he sits on his throne, with his palms resting gracefully on his thighs, the way he wield the sword and the way he walks and talks reeks of everything that’s royal. Hrithik superbly brings a transformation in his character from an indecisive, kind-hearted king to a self-assured emperor who learns to take his own decisions.

Aishwarya Rai is brilliant when it comes to expressing emotions. But she definitely could have done better with the sword.

Sonu Sood as Jodhaa’s muhbola bhai is just about okay.

A R Rahman ’s music grows on you gradually through the course of the film with the instrumental versions of Jashn-e-Bahara and Khwaja Mere Khwaja. The cinematography is topnotch. Be it the panoramic battlefield scenes or the lingering close ups of Hrithik’s sweaty biceps, the camera work in ‘Jodhaa Akbar’ is of superb quality. Praise should also be reserved for Nitin Desai for excellent and authentic recreation of Mughal ambience.

At its core, ‘Jodhaa Akbar’ is a romantic love story. The politics in Akbar’s court and household is more or less an adjoining prop in the plot.

Save for a few shoddy and wishy-washy sequences in the film, ‘Jodhaa Akbar’ is an engaging watch. If only Gowarikar had rid the film of these aberrations, ‘Jodhaa Akbar’ would have been a cinematic masterpiece. In any case it would have been less exhausting.

Rating: ***

'Mithya' 2008 - Refreshingly different

'Mithya 2008' - Refreshingly different

By Nikhil Kumar

Life is what happens while you are busy making other plans. The protagonist of Rajat Kapoor’s film ‘Mithya’ finds this out in a somewhat bittersweet and tragic way.

The film, starring Ranvir Shorey as an ordinary guy stuck in an ever-swirling twister of extraordinary situations, is unpredictable and refreshingly different to its core.

Indiscernibly and cleverly laced with moments of light humour, the plot of ‘Mithya’ straddles across different genres (comedy to thriller to mysterious farce) with incredible aplomb. And a lion’s share of credit for this goes to the director Rajat Kapoor and the film’s leading man and its main driving force – Ranvir Shorey.

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VK (Ranvir Shorey) is a perpetually struggling actor doing small and forgettable roles in films. His humdrum life is turned turtle after he is abducted by a bunch of gangsters, headed by Gawde ( Naseeruddin Shah ). Gawde and his men want to supplant VK in the position of a rival don whom VK resembles.

After enduring torture by the ganglord’s men and coaxing by his attractive moll ( Neha Dhupia ), VK gives in to the plan. He agrees to impersonate as the don.

But the business of being a don (even if an imposter) has its own perks and pains. By the time VK realizes this, he finds himself in the line of fire.

‘Mithya’ begins on a very casual note but soon takes a winding path strewn with surprises and moments of mirth as the troubled and puzzled protagonist tries to come to grips with unwanted twists in his life.

As soon as he begins to resign to his fate, the movie gets serious but continues to throw surprises just when a viewer begins to settle in his/her seat. And its climax, unexpected and tragic, hits you like a bolt from the blue.

In yet another formidable display of his talent, Ranvir Shorey enacts a complex role with remarkable command and straightforwardness. From gay to dejection, optimism to persecution – emotions flit across Ranvir’s face like quicksilver.

Don’t expect much of Vinay Pathak in this film, for he is relegated against a no-less-impressive ensemble of actors including Brijendra Kala, Naseeuddin Shah, Sourabh Shukla and Harsh Chhaya. Neha Dhupia has a marginal role but she does leave an impression.

Last but not the least, Rajat Kapoor, the film’s director, should be commended for making a unique, somewhat bizarre and goofy film that leaves you puzzling over its plot.

Spanning less than two hours, ‘Mithya’ is concise, yet exhaustive. It’s intriguing, perplexing, shocking, entertaining, and thought provoking. Definitely a film not to be missed.

Rating: ***1/2