Film: Race 2
Cast: Saif Ali Khan, John Abraham, Jacqueline Fernandes, Deepika Padukone, Anil Kapoor, Ameesha Patel
Director/s: Abbas-Mustan
Rating: 1.5/5
The one thing that this film keeps reiterating is everybody’s race to the finish. Consider the irony then, that this race moves at the pace of a tortoise, in the guise of a tortoise – uninspiring, unmoving and in some parts, downright boring.
I don’t know what made me go to the theatre on the one extra day of holiday that I’ve had in a long time. Maybe I wanted to have some good ol’ masala Bollywood fun – I am a huge fan of Om Shanti Om/Main Hoon Na etc brand of Hindi films that are unabashedly random and thus truly entertaining. I did imagine that maybe this movie would redeem Bollywood’s down-in-the-dumps reputation of having no imagination. In every sense, I was wrong.
The film begins with a seriously maimed blast – maimed because the directors took extra care to reveal how an assassin puts together a sniper rifle in a bid to impress the unexposed-to-cool-things Indian audience. Then comes a lengthy narration by Anil Kapoor, introducing all the characters in the film – John with his MASSIVE physique, Deepika with her over-accentuated diva walk (it’s terrible, she would have been much better off if she kept it natural, the leggy lass that she is), Jacqueline with her (I must admit) gorgeous looks and Saif, with a huge physique as well. Hulky men, stunning femme fatale – what more should a movie have really?
Anyway, the film then moves from one ‘game’ to another, each with an apparent secret of his or her own, but so predictable that you would rarely be surprised. Everything is on the face and explained in painful detail – from making advances, to plotting things – and if there was any interest that could be piqued, hopes were sadly dashed. I don’t know what the directors were thinking, making a super urbanized movie and yet treating the audience with such apathy or imagining them to be stupid.
The songs, except for one (Party On My Mind; it has a very catchy tune), have been forced into the shoddy narrative. They’re horrible, loud, garish and a waste of money. In this way, Race 2 stretches on for a good 2 hours and 20 minutes. I sat through it so that I could come back and write about it, and possibly prevent true movie lovers from getting disillusioned. Oh, and did I mention that the Shroud of Turin apparently gets stolen?
Saif is alright; there’s a lot of focus on his eyes, reflecting his deep broodiness which honestly feels very shallow. Deepika is terrible at being a femme fatale actually; running a finger down someone’s face, or flaunting her body or looking smoky doesn’t translate into sensual or sexy. In fact, I found Jacqueline sexier, except in scenes where she was made to talk in that drooly, sexual fashion that’s just NOT HOT. Anil was funny, acting not required – he’s done this character to death in so many films, I begin to wonder where the character ends and he is himself. Ameesha too, is the typical dumb cherryhead, looking to sleep with her boss Anil, and their conversations and innuendos are crass and distasteful to boot.
John, however, turned out to be a pretty okay maniac – egotistical, ruthless, money crazy and completely conked in the head. The scene where he fights a professional wrestler is violent, but great in the sense that for the entire time the fight went on, I thought John was the real deal.
Maybe I have been over-exposed to better, world cinema and suspense thrillers are my favourite genre. But that would be giving way more credit to Race 2 than it deserves. It might be fun at home when you’ve nothing to do and you can watch it on TV whenever some channel airs it. Otherwise, missing it won’t be missing anything.
[author][author_image timthumb=’on’] http://kolkatamusing.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/01/tania.bhattacharya.png [/author_image]This article is written by Tania, an avid traveler, a movie buff, and chronicler. And did we tell you…she’s also a foodie? Go figure![/author]
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