This Bollywood film is a pure over the top action movie that is quite a bit of fun, but nothing to take seriously.
Subtle is never a word you could use to describe this film. This ends up being one of the movie's main pros as well as faults. When this movie focuses on the action it is extremely delightful. These action scenes are as over the top and fun as anyone could have every hoped for. They are also masterfully choregraphed and shot to make them work to their full effect. The climatic action sequence is espically a lot of fun and it truly does feel big. Despite the length of this climax it never loses its sense of fun and excitment. Saif Ali Kahn plays this movie's villain as over the top as possible, hamming it up like a villain on the 1960's Batman TV show. It can easily be argued that this performance keeps us from taking the film seriously and to be honest there is much truth to that. Still there is no denying that he is just so much fun to watch. The musical numbers (this is a Bollywood film after all) are also very well done and a lot of fun. However this movie's like of subtly shows its bad side whenever the film wants you to take it seriously. Like many Bollywood movies, this is a very patriotic film, however this movie doesn't convey that patriotism as well as many other Bollywood movies I have seen. The problem being that this patriotism is expressed in corny stilted and forced dialogue. Also this film's utter simplicity provides no reason for this patriotism other than it states one side as good and one side as bad, instead of examining and explaining why the filmmakers see it this way. Most of these patriotic Bollywood movies made me fully understand and appreciate the pride these characters have despite being an American myself. Even during the non-patriotic parts the dialogue heavy scenes still slow the movie down by being too dull and simplified.
This is not a great movie by any means, but it is quite a bit of fun.
-Michael J. Ruhland
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