Release date:
|
December 20, 2013
|
Director:
|
Vijay Krishna Acharya
|
Cast:
Language:
|
Aamir Khan,
Abhishek Bachchan, Uday Chopra, Guest appearance (no kidding!): Katrina Kaif,
Additional guest appearance: Jackie Shroff
Hindi
|
Hormonally charged chases, a good-looking and/or
well-styled cast, eye-catching locations and suspense woven into a reasonably believable storyline – that’s all I wanted from Dhoom 3. What does it offer? All the
above packed into the pre-interval portion, a neat twist right before the
break, and then, pffffffft, it’s like the air has been let out of a balloon.
Let me not get ahead of myself though… In an audacious
daytime heist at the Western Union Bank of Chicago, the robber outwits the
police by escaping from one exit when they thought he was at another. The
daring fellow is Sahir Khan (Aamir Khan) and though he’s inexplicably called Sahir
The Clown Thief, he is in fact a magician and proprietor of The Great Indian
Circus in the city. Since he leaves a clown’s mask alongside a handwritten
message on the bank wall in Hindi, Indian supercop Jai Dixit (Abhishek
Bachchan) is called in to help. Because there are no Indian cops in America? Jai
lands in Chicago looking all suave and sexy in dark glasses, with his
buffoon-like sidekick Ali Akbar in tow. A “love interest” is essential to the
Bollywood formula, so to join his act Sahir auditions all the city’s “hot Asian
ladkiyaan” (his hapless assistant’s
words) before he finds dancer-acrobat-singer Aaliya (Katrina Kaif) who is like
“liquid electricity” (his choice of words, not mine). The film’s first bank
robbery and chase are well choreographed and exciting. The second too is good
enough. But once Sahir’s great secret is revealed, Dhoom 3 is pretty much finished.
The big twist in the tale could also have given the film
the sort of depth that one does not associate with the Dhoom franchise, but director Vijay Krishna Acharya (the gentleman
who made Tashan) is so busy stressing
style over substance that he forgets to cash in on this, the element with most
potential in his story. Aamir is one of the industry’s most dependable actors,
but here the effort to perform shows in too many places. In scenes that were
clearly designed to be deeply emotional, I found myself too aware of how hard
he was trying. The camera and costume heads too have a lot to answer for. There
are shots where poor Aamir’s ears are distractingly prominent, sticking out
goblin-like from the sides of his head. And what was the wardrobe team thinking
putting a sweet-faced middle-aged man of slight stature into that black top,
red pants (or were they tights?) and black boots for a song? Besides, after the
break his mobike stunts get predictable; that initially intriguing motorcycle – Bond-like in its
multi-purposeness – looses its sheen; there’s a needless use of slow motion; and
there are only two more plot points that are sit-up-and-take-notice-worthy: two
more twists I can’t reveal.
The irritating thing about Sahir is that he divulges his
identity to the police when they have no reason whatsoever to connect him to
the first theft, although it should have been obvious to him that figuring out
his magical abilities thereafter wouldn’t really be that tough for a determined cop.
As it happens, cracking his mystery proves to be almost child’s play for
Jai. And no one else in the world had found out so far?! Baah!
Visually, the film remains attractive throughout. Chicago
makes for a pretty location and DoP Sudeep Chatterjee does justice to its
skyline and its many charming streets and bridges. The first presentation of
Sahir’s circus act is spectacular, well shot, with stunning production design,
supplemented by Dhoom 3’s most
beautiful prop: Aaliya. Which brings me to an exasperating aspect of the Dhoom series: the dispensability of its women.
The ladies from the first two films have been brushed aside like dandruff
dusted off a shoulder with disdain; and Katrina here gets even less visibility
than those white flakes might get on a black shirt. Her Aaliya is nothing more
than a gorgeous decorative item in human form. As for her much-publicised
dances in this film, well over the years Katrina has worked hard to master
techniques, but she still lacks fluidity and grace. “Aur ek tum ho jo mujhe dekhta hai jaise main har sawaal ka jawaab hoon
(You look at me as though I’m the answer to your every question),” she says to
her boyfriend in what is one of the few memorable lines from the film. He seems
to have no questions though, and so we get to know next to nothing about her.
Aaliya has company in the form of a female cop from the
Chicago force whose job as the gori showpiece
of the film is taken so seriously that she’s given more tight outfits than she
has dialogues. She always does Jai’s bidding. At one point Jai issues this curt
order to her on the phone, “Victoria, I need a chopper and a SWAT team at
sunrise,” not a word more, possibly to give us some post-colonial satisfaction
that a brown dude could order a white chick around, but more likely because
it’s just so cool to get a man to treat a good-looking blonde policewoman as
though she’s his hired assistant. Huzoor,
you may as well have prefaced that command with “hey babe”. As it stands, the underlying
sexism is laughable.
Dhoom 1 & 2
delivered on the promise of unrelenting entertainment. In Dhoom 3, it’s clear that the franchise is wearing thin. Ali is no
longer amusing; he’s irritating. The emphasis on style has become cloying. The
trademark impertinence of the lead crook is not in the least bit clever here since
it proves to be his undoing. Music director Pritam doesn’t throw up anything particularly noteworthy. And if you intend to give each person a grand
entry scene, you must rise above old-style Bollywood clichés: here, Jai drives
an autorickshaw through a high brick wall and Ali drives a motorcycle through a
hoarding shortly after he is introduced to us. How imaginative! Once the film
stops being interesting, it’s also hard to let go of what might otherwise have
seemed like minor irritants, such as the fact that Jai and Ali don’t once wear
helmets when they’re driving motorbikes in Chicago.
Having said that, it’s got to be conceded that the first
half of this film is fun.
Post-interval though it crumbles under the weight of its lightweight
screenplay. Dhoom 3 is an underwhelming
experience!
Rating (out of five): **
Footnote: The object of Sahir’s hate, the head honcho at the bank he
robs, is called Warren Anderson, which was the name of Union Carbide’s chairman
at the time of the Bhopal gas tragedy. Was it unintentional or meant as a
cheeky aside? Either way, I got a chuckle out of it.
CBFC Rating (India):
|
U/A
|
Running time:
|
172 minutes
|
Poster courtesy: Yash
Raj Films
