“Yours, I believe, says Shah Rukh Khan, carrying an inert Priyanka Chopra and handing her over to the new kid on the block, Sahil Shroff. The movie seems to have been made only to allow the actor to say and do all the things he ever wanted, be it a James Bond and Ethan Hunt rolled into one. What it does come across as finally is a Mission Impossible meets Abbas Mustan.
I have nothing against either except that it is instantaneously forgettable. This is the kind of film-making that urges you to watch and forget. The plot is easy, based mostly in Berlin only so the actors can wear lots of smart black overcoats, Gucci vests and leather boots. There are enough twists and turns that require the actors to drive cars at breakneck speed, jump from buildings, crawl into confined spaces, and look superlatively cool while doing so. Priyanka Chopra gets to keep her indecipherable New York meets Mumbai accent while playing an Interpol agent based out of Kuala Lumpur, Khan gets to play bad, and Boman Irani gets to clench his teeth in all manner of sinister ways that belie his teddy bear image.
In short, everyone gets to do what they feel like. Farhan Akhtar directs but only in a manner of speaking. This is a film by the numbers, a lark, a little game of let’s-look-cool-with-all-manner-of-guns-shall-we? As someone once said so famously of Ocean’s Eleven, it’s not a film so much as a luxury experience. With Khan’s usual wit-Priyanka puts him in handcuffs and he says to her: Hmm, kinky? Or the police finally get him, and surround him, and he says, No autographs please. I suspect most of the lines were written by Khan himself.
There are a lot of inside jokes. Khan saying I like love stories and smiling wickedly when he says so. The characteristics of Don continue-he continues to watch Tom and Jerry and laugh. He loves jungle billi Priyanka Chopra. And Lara Dutta’s character Ayesha continues to be jealous of her. Clearly since Ra.One Khan is on a mission to prove to Hollywood that we can make movies in their genre as well as they can. The streets look the same, the buildings actors jump off look the same (nothing to beat Tom Cruise jumping off Burj Al Arab though) and even the parties look as sophisticated. There are no wedding songs and no karva chauths. And certainly no songs shot in Switzerland.
But it is also curiously generic. It’s the kind of film that could star Tom Cruise and that may not necessarily be a compliment. And ironically-ironic because Khan is so keen to be taken seriously as an anti-hero -it comes to life when he decides to be good for a while.”
Tags: Don2 Farhan Akhtar India today Kaveree Bamzai Priyanka Chopra Reviews Shah Rukh Khan
