Ajay Devgan scores again, but his performance is packaged as a front-bencher pleaser more than anything else. The same with Abhishek's (although his work reaffirms my recent growing conviction that he is made for better stuff). Bipasha looks good in her air hostess uniform, but otherwise is ineffectual wallpaper. There are nice elements in the screenplay and some scenes play out well (the torture of Tambe and Sadanand, most of the exchanges between Devgan and Abhishek, the scenes at the airport featuring the pathetic politician, the intercutting between parliamentary meetings and the suffering relatives at the airport). However, just like Qayamat, this film suffers from disgustingly juvenile jingoism (the worst being Ranvir Singh Ranaavat (Devgan) beating up Baba Zahir Khan (Mukesh Tiwari, last seen in Gangaajal) while news reporters shut off their cameras and mikes). Any chance at things being a tad realistic is destroyed with the excessive slow-mo (clearly for inviting whistles from the crowds); the car chases/crashes (some done well, some too clean) and fights (such terrible editing in the climax) that defy physics, and receive the now tired-and-irritating Matrix-style treatment; and last but not the least, the unwanted song-and-dance (the opening jingostic number featuring Shaan on screen along with K K; the oddball promise of tere sa.ng ek simple sii coffee is lost on screen; and malaika arora's sister amrita arora tries in vain to please by wiggling her tush, jiggling her assets, and cavorting in semi-clad to a room full of uninterested junior artistes to dillii kii sardii, which will remain my favourite aural metaphor of the year). If only they had focused on sticking to some nice source material...
gaffes/I can't take this anymore
* During the song mere naal, Bipasha lets us know that she has really thick skin. How else can you explain her cavorting about in the snow near some hill station in a sari (sleeveless too, wasn't it?) while everyone else is hooded up?
* At a point in the second half, Ajay Devgan asks Abhishek if he is going in to save his fiancee, to which Abhishek's response mixes predictable jingoism (about maa.N, zamiin etc). The problem is: he's already married (with the song mentioned in the previous gaffe alert marking their wedding, honeymoon and awkward consummation)
open question: At one point, when the higher-ups are talking about the incident, I thought I heard Suhasini Mulay's voice and even think I saw her as an aide to a political biggie. If this is true, how thankless a role it was! If this is just hearsay (pun!), let it slip.
Here's what KK looks like, in case you were wondering:
