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Release
date:
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June 15, 2018
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Director:
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Remo
D’souza
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Cast:
Language:
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Salman
Khan, Anil Kapoor, Jacqueline Fernandez, Bobby Deol, Daisy Shah, Saqib
Saleem, Freddy Daruwalla
Hindi
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In a ritual that
male stars of the Hindi film industry have followed with religious fervour for
too long now, Salman Khan and Bobby Deol strip off their shirts in the closing
minutes of Race 3 for an extended
sequence of hand-to-hand combat. Some directors in recent years have managed to lend heat
or humour to this over-familiar cliché, as Ali Abbas Zafar did last year with Tiger Zinda Hai when Khan’s character –
hilariously and memorably – gave ISIS the full blast of his naked torso. Remo
D’souza’s Race 3 lacks the panache to
turn such triteness on its head and/or to keep it still interesting.
In 2008, Saif Ali Khan redefined
“debonair” and directors Abbas-Mustan reinvigorated the action thriller genre
in Bollywood with Race, in the able
company of Bipasha Basu, Anil Kapoor, Akshaye Khanna and others. The film wove
double crosses into double crosses into further double crosses in a novel
fashion and was justifiably rewarded with massive box-office collections. The
surprise element was gone in 2013’s Race 2, but it remained kinda fun albeit forgettable.
Race 3 is an example of a franchise
failing to recognise its own strengths and shooting itself in the foot in the
bargain.
One Khan’s entry into this
money-spinning series resulted in another Khan’s exit. And Abbas-Mustan have
been replaced by D’souza (F.A.L.T.U.,
ABCD: Any Body Can Dance). The loss
is the film’s, entirely.
Salman Khan here plays Sikander
Singh, nephew of the dubious billionaire business tycoon Shamsher Singh (Anil
Kapoor). We are introduced to Sanjana (Daisy Shah) and Suraj (Saqib Saleem) as
Shamsher’s twin children who resent the attention and affection he showers on
Sikander. Yash (Bobby Deol) enters this explosive family mix as a fond
employee, along with a beautiful traitor who goes by the name Jessica
(Jacqueline Fernandez). Shamsher leads a life of luxury in the Middle East but
has not forgotten his days in his village in Allahabad.
Since this is the Race series, it goes without saying that
twists are piled upon twists unrelentingly from start to finish, and in the
suspense department, this third instalment does fare better than Race 2 – which was too obviously
conscious of its desire to startle the audience at every turn – although it is
not a patch on Race 1. The best of
Part 3’s mystery elements are not enough compensation though for the dilution
of several pluses that made Race what
it was.
In the matter of acting, it goes
without saying that Salman is no match for Saif. In Race 3, his face appears even more immobile than it has been in his
earlier films. That alone might have been excusable since Salman has in recent
years made up for what he lacks in the histrionics department with charming
self-deprecation and amusing quirks. Not here.
Race 3’s screenplay by Shiraz Ahmed and
the dialogues by Ahmed with Kiran Kotrial have been written not with commitment
to the story at hand, as much as a deep and abiding commitment to the leading
man (whose company has co-produced this film with Tips) and his by now
legendary connect with his core fan following – the rest of the audience be damned.
This is never clearer than in the
finale when Khan looks at the camera and directly addresses his fans, as has
been his wont through most of his career. Khan a.k.a. Sikander makes them a
thinly veiled promise that there will be a Race
4 and teases them by refusing to confirm that he will be a part of it. The
problem with this device is that it assumes everyone in the hall is a devotee,
and effectively excludes the rest.
In a similar scene just moments
earlier, Kapoor too confirms that there will be a Race 4 and he will feature in it. Yet, he remains in character as
Shamsher while delivering those lines, he does not stare at the camera and the
lines are written in such a way that though the intent is clear, they
simultaneously also take the story forward. This is the difference between a
star and an actor, a star who is playing to the gallery and an actor whose
sincerity to his craft extends to immersing himself in his role even in the
silliest of works.
Further emphasising this film’s
Salmania is a comment about the dispensability of women – whether in big-banner
commercial ventures (as producers, directors and analysts have openly said in
the past) or in men’s lives is unclear. When Jessica saves Sikander’s neck in Race 3, she asks him: Main nahin hoti toh kya karte (If I
weren’t around, what would you have done)? Koi
aur hoti (there would have been another woman), he replies without batting
an eyelid, giving her a speaking look.
Read: women don’t matter. Yeah,
we got that.
Fernandez and Shah are good with
their stunts, and it is particularly nice to see Sanjana cocking a snook at
those who are cynical about women and action by modifying her tight skirt for a
fight scene in which she turns her stilettos – a constraint in such a scenario,
you would assume – into a deadly weapon. Sadly, Shah lacks presence and it is
exasperating to imagine that D’souza or his producers felt she could equal
Basu’s charisma that was such an important part of Race.
Oh wait. I forgot. Women don’t
matter?
Race 2 was replete with bombastic
dialoguebaazi. Fortunately for Race 3,
silly lines like, “Ise dil nahin Dell
kholke dikhao (gist: instead of talking so much, show him the video we have
on your Dell computer)” that Sanjana tosses at Suraj do not come too often.
The film has been released both
in regular 2D and 3D. I watched the 3D version and I found it rewarding in the
sense that it had the effect of drawing a viewer into its world while being
intermittently shocking, even if the determination to impress in 3D got too
glaring twice when Salman throws his sunglasses at the screen, once early on
and once towards the end.
Kapoor is the best thing about
this film, even though he is constrained by the not-so-imaginative writing and
staccato rhythm of the screenplay that follows this pattern from beginning to
end: high-adrenaline action, song, action, song, action, song, action, song.
That arrangement is especially problematic because the soundtrack is packed
with colourless compositions, redeemed only by Selfish with music by Vishal Mishra, sung by Atif Aslam and Iulia
Vantur. “Ek baar baby, selfish hoke, apne
liye jiyo na (Just once, baby, be selfish and live for yourself),” it goes.
I approve of the sentiment.
The Allah duhai hai reprise retains the original robust tune, but much
of its impact is watered down by the way songs are used in the film.
For the record, Kapoor looks
handsome and immensely dignified with a grey beard and hair. That he is playing
his age ends up underlining the fact that 52-going-on-53-year-old Khan is not.
Sikander is 35 years old. Seriously? Why?
Race 3 is perhaps Khan’s way of
assuring fans that he does not intend to make a habit of films like the gutsy,
politically subversive Bajrangi Bhaijaan (2015) and the thoughtful even if flawed Tubelight (2017).
To be fair to him
and to D’souza, some of the whodunnitandwhy in Race 3 is genuinely engaging, but the film needed more where that
came from. Besides, the narrative style is tired and ends up adding nothing new
to the Race franchise. Everyone and
everything looks pretty and is dressed pretty in Race 3. The evidently expensive production design and the visuals
by DoP Ayananka Bose – especially that aerial shot of vehicles in a desert
looking like ants from high up above – give the film its polish.
You know what would
have added depth to that polish? Saif Ali Khan and a better laid out
screenplay.
Rating
(out of five stars): *3/4
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CBFC Rating (India):
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UA
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Running time:
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160 minutes
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A version of this review has also been published on Firstpost:
