A good taut action thriller with terrorism as the reason for the violence ..... Islam vs. the West ..... is the central theme. But like Fanaa this movie fails to tug your heart emotionally as well as a serious movie on terrorism should.
Otherwise for a Bollywood film this is much better than average with good characterisation, good strong performances, great camera work and stunts. My recurring grouse with modern Indian movies is about trying to show too much realism in violence e.g. somebody's brain spilling out from a bullet shot or a bullet wound being stitched. Showing the aftermath of a bomb blast can still be reasoned for trying to show the realistic horrors of modern day terrorism and therefore in a way promoting the message of shunning it.
Kareena Kapoor (Avantika) plays the damsel in distress most brilliantly and it seems to be an equally strong performance as her Dev and Omkara earlier. Incidentally Saif Ali Khan (Ehsaan Khan) puts her in trouble yet another time in a movie. Saif however has the weakest role in the film. His acting does not look convincing either in the emotional sense of love or in the ideology that he is shown following. In fact Vivek Oberoi turns up a much stronger performance in terms of emoting and dialogue delivery. Surprisingly the seasoned Om Puri is also not so convincing. Kirron Kher as the Afgani woman out to seek revenge for the Western atrocities is brilliant both in keeping her accent through out the film as well as delivering the most convincing performance out of all jehadis.
In fact the only really tugging scene is the last one between Avantika and Ehsaan climaxing in the last close up of Avantika whose grief shows up in her eyes.
Some situations are very unbelievable like a terrorist group recruiting a rank outsider and a Hindu father marrying his daughter to an unknown Muslim without proper verifications.
The film could have been shortened but the director also wanted to cash in on the Saif-eena chemistry and has introduced an unnecessary bed-room sequence which again is ideologically and passionately unnecessary and impractical. There were other means of Avantika achieving the same goal.
The music of new duo Salim Suleiman is good and catchy. Camera angles and movements are slick and of Hollywood standards. Sadly for all its filming techniques and brilliance of taut story-telling the film is very Anti-Islamic. It fails to show a balanced view of Islam or of the fact that only a few Muslims who really endorse terrorism. The background of how the protagonists became terrorists has been verbally retold in few sentences by the Afghan lady; however doesn't sound plausible. For example one can't become a suave English speaking professor and world's top terrorist and assassin within 4 years after surviving American bombings in remote villages of Pakistan.
It is a good time-pass entertaining thriller despite its shortcomings of being unconvincing on the central ideology. Kareena deserves some critical awards for her performance.....however the slim size zero her does not look too pretty to the eyes any more ... in many scenes she looks like a scary ghostly apparition moving silently in the dark !!! Saif can perhaps escape the criticism of looking old and haggard because of his characters "painful" background and current profession.
Rating : * * * * *
