MOVIE REVIEW

DHOOM 3

Director: Vijay Krishna Acharya
Stars: Aamir Khan, Abhishek Bachchan, Katrina Kaif, Uday Chopra, Jackie Shroff
Length: 136 minutes
Strengths: International look; high production values, originality in fight scenes and stunts (although unrealistic)
Weakness: Loopy plot; forced action scenes
Showbiz Rating: 2.5/5
Formulated more on loop-holes than coherency, the screenplay by director Vijay Krishna Acharya (based on the story by producer Aditya Chopra and Mr. Acharya, also the writer of the first two Dhooms) fixates on a frayed plot about family revenge and window dresses it with mix of uber-bike chases, feeble music by Pritam. Opening on the debt ridden illusionist (Jackie Shroff), and his prodigy son Sahir, “Dhoom 3” quickly discards any substantiality of the plot in favor of superficially sexy-looking escape sequences of the movie's lead crook – a grown up version of Sahir played by Aamir Khan. Sahir is his father's son, and discrediting the movie's opening about their family circus being debt ridden by a nefarious bank, he is running a modern day grandstand version of the circus to packed houses. He is also, quite openly, raiding the bank that forced his father to put a bullet to his head. Regardless of being set in Chicago, Sahir loots the place, threatens them in Hindi, places a joker's mask as his mark, and scales the building down without concealing his identity. If the heist feels anticlimactic, it's because we didn't see how Sahir thwarted the bank's security measures. In fact, we never see him committing any robbery! He just, quite simply, escapes. The bank and police are baffled.
Who is this unmasked burglar? Where are the surveillance tapes, and why are the people witnessing the acts not being questioned? Instead, feeling trumped, they bring Indian super-cop Jai Dixit (Abhishek Bachchan) and his bike Savvy partner Ali (Uday Chopra) over for some bland play-acting. Not to mention Katrina Kaif, brought in for some cameo-esque screen-time, who plays Aaliya, the high-wire acrobat who falls for Sahir. Aamir Khan works hard for his pay cheque, however his earnestness, fall prey to Dhoom franchises' in-built partiality to be big, loud and preposterous.

Interviewed by Broti Rahman

***

Baishe Srabon

Director: Srijit Mukherji
Writer: Srijit Mukherji
Cast: Prosenjit Chatterjee, Goutam Ghose, Parambrata Chatterjee, Rajesh Sharma and Raima Sen
Length: 2 hr 20 mins
Strength: Story, acting, cinematography, music
Weakness: Some unnecessary sub-plots
Star Showbiz Rating: 3.5/5
Plot: A serial killer is committing murders across Kolkata based on descriptions in some famous poetry. An eccentric ex-cop is brought back to solve the case along with a young detective who develop an unusual understanding through a chain of bizarre events.
Review: Rarely do we stumble upon a film that has so many layers to it that we can watch it ten times and still discover new layers every time we watch it. Baishe Srabon is one of those films. It has been made in a poetic fashion, appreciated by a large group of people. There is something to take away for every kind of movie-goer, even for those who would never watch anything 'non-Hollywood'. There is action, romance, suspense, drama, twist and what not. The characters themselves have so many facades to them that it is a wonder how all these contradictory elements have been weaved immaculately together. We feel for them all- the hero, the 'side-hero', the villain, the 'side-villain', the leading lady and even the small characters that we only see in minute flashbacks. Probir Roy Chowdhury (Prosenjit) will make you laugh with his intensely witty and sarcastic dialogues and drag you down to a depressive corner in your mind with his profound miseries. The cinematography delicately complements the poetry that is injected adeptly into the right spots. The mind-blowing music announces the innate, yet unbearable loneliness of the central characters. All of these elements combined make this film worth watching and perhaps, re-watching.

Reviewed by Sadia Khalid

***

Escape Plan

Director: Mikael Håfström
Stars: Sylvester Stallone, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Jim Caviezel, Faran Tahir, Amy Ryan, Sam Neill
Length: 136 minutes
Strengths: Unique story, cast, comic relief
Weakness: Predictable ending, weak fight scenes
Box Office: 123 million US$
Showbiz Rating: 3/5
Escape Plan stars Sylvester Stallone as Ray Breslin, a man who specializes in a very specific talent: he infiltrates and then escapes from the nation's most notorious prisons, in order to point out flaws in security which the prison can then fix. One day, Ray and his team are approached by a young CIA agent for a new type of job: breaking out of one the government's shadow prisons, a place that doesn't officially exist, used to house the worst threats to peace and order in the free world.
As soon as Ray arrives in the care of the fascistic warden Hobbes (Jim Caviezel), he knows that something has gone terribly wrong. No one seems aware of his identity, or his mission, leaving him stranded amongst the worst inmates on the planet. Needing help in order to do what he does best, Ray befriends cell block heavyweight Rottmayer (Arnold Schwarzenegger) and brings him into the escape plan.
Escape plan is carried by the momentum of a Schwarzenegger/Stallone team-up. With a testosterone-fueled cast and story, the action film is a pure weekend throwback, which teeters between clever self-parody and a modest attempt to create an action film. The balance between Arnold's witty and humorous character who just can't shut up and Stallone's sober and serious face throughout the film keeps the audience going back and forth between who they like better.
 There's very little actual action in the film, at least in the first half. The movie could fairly be described as a heist-thriller – only with the “crooks” trying to “heist” themselves out of prison. Although definitely not one of the most memorable movies of its time, Escape Plan is a action-thriller, where your favourite action stars of the 90s come out winning.

Reviewed by Zakir Mushtaque