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Film : Dhoom 2
DIRECTOR: Sanjay Gadhvi
ACTORS: Hrithik Roshan, Abhishek Bachchan, Uday Chopra
Mirror Rating : * * *
Mayank Shekhar
It's the sort of return of a 'blockbuster' as a franchise that you would expect it to be. I wasn't too sure why or how Gadhvi's first film (Dhoom, 2004), to which this is a successor, proved to be the massive commercial success that I hear it was.
The first obvious bet could be the electrifying Tata Young track (Dhoom Machale) that, for months after, I'd hear blaring out of car stereo systems on the few free roads that you can still zip across in late-night Mumbai. Also, it's not certain if the excessive and sudden Indian, urban lure for monstrous, smoke-less, two-tyre machines preceded Dhoom, or did the film entirely propel the craze.
Yet, in Hollywood mainstream, which is targeted toward the same audience as this film is, hot women and hotter wheels have forever counted as formula with a fair strike rate. This one is as shamelessly a derivative of that genre as Hindi films may ever get to be; as robust an inspiration as Third World movie-budgets will allow them to be. So no complaints on that front at all.
But for a climax sequence, Dhoom 2 almost entirely does away with motorbikes of the first installment, as much as it gives lesser thought to recording a catchy soundtrack to glue some of its stupendously shot stunts, and scenery set-pieces together (the songs in fact appear as roadblocks to what could've been a more seamless process).
The film doesn't need to do away with the plot though — there wasn't much of it in the first part; there isn't much, and doesn't need to be in the second either. The story-line is merely representative. If anything, the makers this time seem more willfully disrespectful to the diktats of physics and logic.
Most won't mind, even as they watch Hrithik's 'A' racing a police helicopter, on his roller-skates, traversing the South Mumbai traffic. The cops couldn't think of trapping him with a barricade on the road instead. There are many other sequences that you could compile on a common compendium called the 'blockbuster clichs'. This is stuff that only happens in the movies, and sometimes we just love them for it: a successful heist in a supremely-guarded museum that hosts a crowning jewel, or a particular precious diamond; startled onlookers in a crazy action sequence that we never get to see…
If this is a question in your mind, I think, as a stylized all-action no-brainer, Dhoom 2 is not just bigger, but way better than its predecessor. The crucial difference the recruiters have made with this unabashed star-vehicle is Hrithik, the super-hero-like protagonist, or antagonist, as it were. In a haphazardly defined role of a one-man international heist operator who appears with no background information, the actor lends depth, pizzazz, unflappable energy and charm to a character where none exist; we're not even sure if the motiveless burglar is a villain in the first place. Yet, he works, and I suspect, so does the film, when he's around.
He is chased by a bunch of cops (Bachchan, Chopra, Bipasha Basu), and an undercover 'plant' (Rai; sensuous clothes alone cannot heat up a cole-slaw; the true 'Bond woman' is Bipasha here).
The screenplay however leaves scope for the side-kick in the plot (Chopra) to walk off with the film; he almost does, so endearing are the character's dialogues and the comic timing, you will find yourself responding to his madcap antics.
The anticipated result is a wonderfully crafted mall product; much of it goes well with the pop-corn. This is more or less what I felt the posters had promised me, they just about meet those expectations. Be extremely wary of the hype though.
mumbaimirror.indiatimes.com
DIRECTOR: Sanjay Gadhvi
ACTORS: Hrithik Roshan, Abhishek Bachchan, Uday Chopra
Mirror Rating : * * *
Mayank Shekhar
It's the sort of return of a 'blockbuster' as a franchise that you would expect it to be. I wasn't too sure why or how Gadhvi's first film (Dhoom, 2004), to which this is a successor, proved to be the massive commercial success that I hear it was.
The first obvious bet could be the electrifying Tata Young track (Dhoom Machale) that, for months after, I'd hear blaring out of car stereo systems on the few free roads that you can still zip across in late-night Mumbai. Also, it's not certain if the excessive and sudden Indian, urban lure for monstrous, smoke-less, two-tyre machines preceded Dhoom, or did the film entirely propel the craze.
Yet, in Hollywood mainstream, which is targeted toward the same audience as this film is, hot women and hotter wheels have forever counted as formula with a fair strike rate. This one is as shamelessly a derivative of that genre as Hindi films may ever get to be; as robust an inspiration as Third World movie-budgets will allow them to be. So no complaints on that front at all.
But for a climax sequence, Dhoom 2 almost entirely does away with motorbikes of the first installment, as much as it gives lesser thought to recording a catchy soundtrack to glue some of its stupendously shot stunts, and scenery set-pieces together (the songs in fact appear as roadblocks to what could've been a more seamless process).
The film doesn't need to do away with the plot though — there wasn't much of it in the first part; there isn't much, and doesn't need to be in the second either. The story-line is merely representative. If anything, the makers this time seem more willfully disrespectful to the diktats of physics and logic.
Most won't mind, even as they watch Hrithik's 'A' racing a police helicopter, on his roller-skates, traversing the South Mumbai traffic. The cops couldn't think of trapping him with a barricade on the road instead. There are many other sequences that you could compile on a common compendium called the 'blockbuster clichs'. This is stuff that only happens in the movies, and sometimes we just love them for it: a successful heist in a supremely-guarded museum that hosts a crowning jewel, or a particular precious diamond; startled onlookers in a crazy action sequence that we never get to see…
If this is a question in your mind, I think, as a stylized all-action no-brainer, Dhoom 2 is not just bigger, but way better than its predecessor. The crucial difference the recruiters have made with this unabashed star-vehicle is Hrithik, the super-hero-like protagonist, or antagonist, as it were. In a haphazardly defined role of a one-man international heist operator who appears with no background information, the actor lends depth, pizzazz, unflappable energy and charm to a character where none exist; we're not even sure if the motiveless burglar is a villain in the first place. Yet, he works, and I suspect, so does the film, when he's around.
He is chased by a bunch of cops (Bachchan, Chopra, Bipasha Basu), and an undercover 'plant' (Rai; sensuous clothes alone cannot heat up a cole-slaw; the true 'Bond woman' is Bipasha here).
The screenplay however leaves scope for the side-kick in the plot (Chopra) to walk off with the film; he almost does, so endearing are the character's dialogues and the comic timing, you will find yourself responding to his madcap antics.
The anticipated result is a wonderfully crafted mall product; much of it goes well with the pop-corn. This is more or less what I felt the posters had promised me, they just about meet those expectations. Be extremely wary of the hype though.
mumbaimirror.indiatimes.com
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