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Release date:
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August 28, 2015
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Director:
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Kabir Khan
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Cast:
Language:
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Saif Ali Khan, Katrina Kaif,
Zeeshan Ayyub, Sohaila Kapur
Hindi
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It
is not profound. It is far from being a work of genius. And the screenplay is
not of the kick-ass variety you would expect from a fictionalised Indian
fantasy about a plot to kill the masterminds of the 26/11 terror attacks in
Mumbai (based on S. Hussain Zaidi’s book Mumbai
Avengers).
Still,
Phantom is fun when it’s being a matter-of-fact
thriller instead of a mushy patriotic drama. As it happens, it is not mushy for
the most part, the action is slick and twists come flying thick and fast, leaving
us with little time while the film is on to reason out whether they are
credible.
Saif
Ali Khan holds it all together, playing Daniyal Khan, a disgraced ex-Armyman
who is recruited by India’s Research and Analysis Wing (RAW) for a mission –
not authorised by the government – to eliminate the 26/11 kingpins. RAW’s chief
is persuaded to take up the project by an over-zealous new joinee (Zeeshan Ayyub). Daniyal is a phantom of sorts since he virtually disappeared after his
exit from the forces, making him ideal for the project: he is keen to regain
his honour, but if he dies while on duty no one would know and even less people
would care.
And
so he agrees to avenge 26/11, travelling from the UK to the US, Syria and
Pakistan in the bargain. Help comes in the form of ex-RAW hand and current international
security consultant, Nawaz Mistry (Katrina Kaif), sundry RAW plants and an
unexpected Pakistani ally.
Saif
in Phantom has put behind him Agent Vinod (2012) in which he looked
like an amateur playing Cops ‘n’ Robbers with toy guns. He is believable as a
secret agent in this one. His demeanour here harks back to his performance in
2004 in a far superior film, Ek Hasina
Thi.
The
supporting cast is a mixed bag, the highlight being Sohaila Kapur as an old Pakistani
nurse. The jingoistic elements in Phantom
revolve around the RAW officer played by Zeeshan Ayyub who is served poorly by
the writing. His character gets almost all the film’s predictable, chest-thumpingly
patriotic dialogues and scenes – a pity because this talented actor deserves better.
I
couldn’t help but wonder what Priyanka Chopra or Anushka Sharma might have done
with the better-written role of Nawaz Mistry, but since it is Katrina that
we’ve got, it must be said that her limitations as an actress are somewhat neutralised
in Phantom by director Kabir Khan’s
ability to tap into a certain comfort level she has developed with the camera over
the years. He does it here while also not allowing the camera to obsess over
her pretty face as it does in most of her films.
As
for her character, it’s interesting to see a Hindi film giving us an uncaricatured
Parsi. It’s interesting too to see an Indian Muslim hero in a story in which no
one delivers a sermon on secularism in the context of his faith, as is the norm
with Hindi films featuring significant Muslim characters. Clearly a point is
being made with Daniyal being a Khan, but the messaging is unspoken, which is
nice. Of course it would be nicer still for us to get more films where a
character’s Muslim-/Sikh-/Christian-/Parsi-ness is not an element in the plot. Muslims,
Parsis and all minorities are people, you know. They exist, and a screenplay should
not feel compelled to justify their presence in a story. That’s why Nawaz in Phantom is a small milestone.
It’s
odd that Haafiz Saeed’s name is disguised as Haariz Saeed in the film, since David
Coleman Headley is called David Coleman Headley. That’s not the only question
mark. Since the RAW chief was authorising the operation despite a vehement no
from the Home Minister, it’s unclear how he could guarantee to Daniyal that he
would be reinstated in the Army and his honour restored, if the job was
completed successfully. Was he lying? It didn’t seem so. Is the implication
then that the Union Cabinet would fall in line once the mission was aced? Well
then, Pakistani commentators have routinely suggested that RAW is as much of a
mischief-maker as the ISI across the border which our people say has a
stranglehold over the Pakistan government, so it’s laughable that an Indian
film implying as much has been banned there.
For
those concerned about Phantom cashing
in on public bloodlust, the film carefully positions its mission as one
designed to save India and Pakistan from going to war. The script is at pains
to point out that while Indians suffer because of Pakistani terrorists, thousands
of Pakistanis too die as a result of home-grown terror. Underlining the point
is one of Daniyal’s co-conspirators: a Pakistani who experienced a great
personal loss at the hands of the terrorists Daniyal is targeting.
Where
jingoism does rear its head in the film, it is brief and too bland, even silly
to be worrisome in the way the ending of Nikhil Advani’s D-Day was. In fact, these portions pull Phantom down with cliched, flag-waving dialogues and a painfully
long-drawn-out, emotionally manipulative climax. Sans this, it could have been a
neat, audacious action thriller despite its lack of depth.
Audacity
can lead to realities stranger than fiction. If before 9/11, Hollywood had made
a film about men flying planes into New York’s World Trade Centre, would we have
believed it? Pre-26/11, if an Indian director had made a film about foreigners casually
entering Mumbai by sea through unguarded beaches, gunning down ordinary
citizens at sundry locations in the city and laying siege to a 5-star hotel for
days, would we not have laughed it off? Viewed in that context, Phantom is not really as improbable as
it seems when we analyse it at an intellectual level.
Sure
it lacks depth and is, therefore, not particularly memorable, a far cry from
Kabir’s recent Bajrangi Bhaijaan. Phantom is what we Indians call “timepass”.
Considering the subject matter, it should have been more, but as it is, it’s
what we Indians additionally call a “one-time watch”.
Rating
(out of five): **1/2
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CBFC Rating (India):
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U/A
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Running time:
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147 minutes
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