"I will watch this movie only because of Aamir
khan", a friend of mine told me, as we
merrily discussed the dhoom 3 weekend. I am sure thousands of Indians echoed that sentiment. With his choices and his devotion to
every choice he makes, the audience, his fans and critics have learnt to expect
a certain brand of perfection when it comes to Aamir khan! So you buy your ticket, pick your
popcorn and wait. The ads, promos and previews end and the movie begins.
Dance, for example, was never aamir's strength and as
hard as he tries, he doesn't manage to unlearn his native 90s swagger n
stances. Tap dance, contemporary, hip hop. Why!?!?! That brings us to action -
Aamir does a ghajini act again, (or the director picks a few tricks from that
movie) and makes sure the focus is on the chiseled body. And then again, the
dhoom franchise is that of chase sequences. Bikes, cars, motor boats, concept
vehicles - Aamir doesn't get to "express" or "act" but it
is the choreography (action) that is awe inspiring.
True to its franchise, the movie takes a wafer thin plot
(with a dramatic interval twist) and infuses a whole lot of style and super slo
mo action moments, sprinkles in an item Number with an arm candy. In the end,
the line between good and bad is as blurred as the films overall impression.
So there's a great Indian circus in Chicago (more like
Chicagos got Indian talent) which is bankrupt and the bank simply does the
right thing by asking it to shut down. But no, it's not such a simple thing.
Think of how many lives this will affect- TWO!! (Okay, three, wink wink). It's
a dramatic Bollywood moment, and the circus owner/lead magician is also an
emotional dad who can't take the moment and shoots himself in the head. His 7-8
year old son who witnesses this is convinced that the bank is the culprit here
and vows to put an end to the bank! He is all set to avenge this all by himself
(or is he?).
The boy grows into a 6-pack strutting dude, who is all
set to reopen the circus, cast the hottest desi gal in town and fulfill his
dad's dream (what was the dream btw). In his free time, he's building concept
bikes that'll aide him loot different branches of the same bank. Why Abhishek
and Uday land in the USA to solve this case, is as much mystery to me as to why
Katrina signed this film. May be answer to both those questions is: What else
to do!
Unlike it's previous outings, a few things just don't
work this time. Music, is the biggest let down. None of the numbers, NONE of
them rock. The choreography of the magic number is good but nothing you haven't
seen better versions of in reality shows.
The Abhishek-Uday comedy track is too overdone and simply
blah. At some point it feels like even the two actors are bored of this part
and are on the "fake it till you make it" mode. It's not funny, to
say the least.
There's no chemistry whatsoever in the lead pair (dhoom 2
worked on another level, simply because of the lead pair's chemistry,
remember). Forget chemistry, the one tender moment of the film also seems so
forced and awkward. Something's awe fully wrong with the casting here. They
don't work well together.
Everyone knew this was a hero's movie, Aamir's movie,
from start to end. Aamir is given enough to play with and goes about like a
child in a toy store. Obviously great. But, is this his best performance? Not
even close. Is this even the years best performance by a lead actor? Not even
close.
Well.. critical acclaim hardly matters to commercial
viability. And so, In an industry where chennai express and krish 3 will go down as the years most
successful films, this film surely "deserves" to be a superhit for
it's surely better than those films.
In the end though, this is a forgettable 1-time watch. Everyone enjoys the occasional adrenelin rush, but even hiccups can last longer
than the memories of this film.
2.5 stars
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