No I don’t disagree that Race is a good entertainer, okay its reasonably okay, perhaps a lil’ better than just okay, it is a decent one time watch. While it may come across as an edge of the seat kinda whodunit right till the end, I have one different dimension to add to the film.
For starters, Race isn’t much of an innovatively creative enterprise, nor are its makers at their creative entrepreneurial best. If there is one department in which they have excelled with Race, then it is getting the marketing blitzkrieg right. There they sure have hit the bull’s eye with a skill and an efficiency which very few people do these days. Story wise, the film has nothing new to offer, if one does do a review of the duo’s past ventures. The basic plot begins with a slight tweak in the way Humraaz began, with Akshaye Khanna (my usual favorite), being so miserably repetitive that in some scenes one might think whether they’ve actually re-shot the scenes, or have appended the leftovers from the previous venture to the screenplay of Race. Further twists keep happening, with oodles of sex, oops, oomph thrown in which the onlookers can ogle at, and then shades of so many Abbas Mustan thrillers keep making a guest appearance one after the other, and then finally comes a point when the film becomes a repeat of Ajnabee. So shockingly similar is Saif’s reappearance in the climax to Bipasha’s in Ajnabee, that one doesn’t need to figure out where the duo does their research for their ‘fresh’ films.
But what the film has, and where it strikes gold, is the ensemble star cast, and the amazingly ‘frequent’ twists which keep happening in the plot. Towards the end, the paths of the film’s script are so serpentine that even the most uninterested viewer wouldn’t want to miss them. This is where Race proves that though Abbas Mustan have traversed their oft repeated paths, they know their paths like nobody else. They live in a world of grey and all their characters always are grey. Its just that Race’s grey isn’t perhaps as demanding on the grey cells as is the case with Abbas Mustan generally. Of course, if one does hold 36 China Town and Naqaab, as a benchmark, then Race is a classic! Another hallmark of the film is the car race before the climax. Regardless of how they’ve done it or from where they’ve copied it, it is a visual treat and an exciting cinematic moment indeed!
Almost everybody is decent enough as performers, with Saif obviously being the pick of the lot, and Akshaye though a bit disappointing by his standards is competent nonetheless. While I guess Anil Kapoor must be in a dire need of roles to do such a crappy role, none of the women have much to do than flaunt their bodies, which they do very well, but none in the lot is worth a special mention (considering this is all that they do in all their films), apart from Sameera who should probably just stop doing films.
Technically Race is good, and everything from the background music to the camera work is picture perfect. While music composer Pritam needs to be reminded of his own body of work for him to realize what he has done with the music of this film, the title track and Atif bhai’s song make for an okay album overall, with the rest being the fast forward variety, visually and otherwise. Other departments are fine, apart from the dialogue writers who have just done a pathetic job. While several moments just get the punch coz of Saif and Akshaye, the same dialogues would have made fools out of other actors. And as for lines like mera ganna chus lo, which Anil Kapoor says to Sameera, I don’t even want to comment. I just have one request for Mr. Kapoor, Sir I am a hardcore fan of yours, and respect you more than anything else, please in the name of god, don’t make me regret watching you on screen!
On the whole, a nice weekend popcorn attraction, Race is a decent entertainer, which has its commercial success written as a subtitle, I somehow wonder whether it would have the repeat value which some of the previous Abbas Mustan flicks do have!
For starters, Race isn’t much of an innovatively creative enterprise, nor are its makers at their creative entrepreneurial best. If there is one department in which they have excelled with Race, then it is getting the marketing blitzkrieg right. There they sure have hit the bull’s eye with a skill and an efficiency which very few people do these days. Story wise, the film has nothing new to offer, if one does do a review of the duo’s past ventures. The basic plot begins with a slight tweak in the way Humraaz began, with Akshaye Khanna (my usual favorite), being so miserably repetitive that in some scenes one might think whether they’ve actually re-shot the scenes, or have appended the leftovers from the previous venture to the screenplay of Race. Further twists keep happening, with oodles of sex, oops, oomph thrown in which the onlookers can ogle at, and then shades of so many Abbas Mustan thrillers keep making a guest appearance one after the other, and then finally comes a point when the film becomes a repeat of Ajnabee. So shockingly similar is Saif’s reappearance in the climax to Bipasha’s in Ajnabee, that one doesn’t need to figure out where the duo does their research for their ‘fresh’ films.
But what the film has, and where it strikes gold, is the ensemble star cast, and the amazingly ‘frequent’ twists which keep happening in the plot. Towards the end, the paths of the film’s script are so serpentine that even the most uninterested viewer wouldn’t want to miss them. This is where Race proves that though Abbas Mustan have traversed their oft repeated paths, they know their paths like nobody else. They live in a world of grey and all their characters always are grey. Its just that Race’s grey isn’t perhaps as demanding on the grey cells as is the case with Abbas Mustan generally. Of course, if one does hold 36 China Town and Naqaab, as a benchmark, then Race is a classic! Another hallmark of the film is the car race before the climax. Regardless of how they’ve done it or from where they’ve copied it, it is a visual treat and an exciting cinematic moment indeed!
Almost everybody is decent enough as performers, with Saif obviously being the pick of the lot, and Akshaye though a bit disappointing by his standards is competent nonetheless. While I guess Anil Kapoor must be in a dire need of roles to do such a crappy role, none of the women have much to do than flaunt their bodies, which they do very well, but none in the lot is worth a special mention (considering this is all that they do in all their films), apart from Sameera who should probably just stop doing films.
Technically Race is good, and everything from the background music to the camera work is picture perfect. While music composer Pritam needs to be reminded of his own body of work for him to realize what he has done with the music of this film, the title track and Atif bhai’s song make for an okay album overall, with the rest being the fast forward variety, visually and otherwise. Other departments are fine, apart from the dialogue writers who have just done a pathetic job. While several moments just get the punch coz of Saif and Akshaye, the same dialogues would have made fools out of other actors. And as for lines like mera ganna chus lo, which Anil Kapoor says to Sameera, I don’t even want to comment. I just have one request for Mr. Kapoor, Sir I am a hardcore fan of yours, and respect you more than anything else, please in the name of god, don’t make me regret watching you on screen!
On the whole, a nice weekend popcorn attraction, Race is a decent entertainer, which has its commercial success written as a subtitle, I somehow wonder whether it would have the repeat value which some of the previous Abbas Mustan flicks do have!
3 comments:
Ah Dev. Your bias has finally caught up with you. Although I like the way you slice a film into its many elements and examine each one, your review of Race seems to be overwhelmingly laden with your obvious admiration for some of the film's exponents.
It might be that I come from a different school of film-making and appreciation, and hence the difference in opinion.
I thought Race was painful throughout and it looked like the film-makers were just getting introduced to the genre. They looked out of sorts. I hope Tashan is better.
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Good hai bhai. lage raho :D
You've come back after a loooong hiatus. Keep blogging.
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