Race

Banner:	Tips Films Limited
Cast:	Saif Ali Khan, Anil Kapoor, Akshaye Khanna, Bipasha Basu, Katrina Kaif ,Sameera Reddy.
Direction:	Abbas Mustan
Production:	Kumar S. Taurani & Ramesh S. Taurani
Music:	Pritam

After a dry spell at the box office primarily due to school and college exams, comes the release of one of the most awaited films of the year. Tips Industries, the producers of the film have put in so much dedication and moolah to assure the masses that they see a flick that looks international.

The director duo, Abbas-Mastan returns with yet another thriller, but this time around a flick that is sleek and high on style. After over 6 years of waiting, the duo finally does a film with Saif and is it worth all that much?

Well to take off, the film revolves around two brothers; Ranvir [Saif Ali Khan] and Rajeev [Akshaye Khanna] who own a huge stud farm in Durban, South Africa. They breed horses on their huge ranch house and are also the biggest bookies in the horse racing circuit. Ranvir, the elder of the two, is known to be a very shrewd man. He is very aggressive and is always on the move. Rajiv, on the other hand, is very laidback and is also a chronic alcoholic.

Sophia [Katrina Kaif] is Ranvir’s personal secretary. She adores her boss and loves him. Ranvir is totally unaware of her feeling and regards her adoration as her efficiency. Sonia [Bipasha Basu] is an upcoming Indian ramp model in Durban.

Sonia loves Ranvir, but through a twist of fate gets married to Rajiv. When she discovers that Rajiv is a chronic alcoholic, things begin to get worse.

Eventually, Ranvir and Sonia come very close to each other and an affair starts between the younger brother’s wife and the elder brother. When the younger brother starts suspecting his wife, all hell breaks loose.

A murder is committed, a contract killing is issued, double crossings become the order of the day… A sharp-tongued investigative officer R.D. [Anil Kapoor] starts an investigation with his brainless assistant Mini [Sameera Reddy].

Abbas- Mastan have proved it over the years that no one can beat them when it comes to the thriller genre. With films like Khiladi , Baazigar , Humraaz ; Race might just add to their list of hits. The film has several twists and turns that keep you saying ‘oh’ and reanalyzing everything so that bits and pieces of the story fill in to form the collage called Race.

But one little factor that has to be noted is that as the duo directors attempt to make things complicated and shock the audience , they just kind of lose out on the whole plot and this con man film at the end makes the viewer wonder when did certain characters team up to plot against the others.

The screenplay of the film by Shiraz Ahmed is good but at times is loose. The 1^st half of the film is quite a drag and the songs look really forced upon. Next time around, Abbas-Mastan should consider chopping some tracks. Maybe this time they couldn’t do so considering their producers are Music giants.

On the acting front, the film truly belongs to Saif. Saif looks stylish, smart and carries the adrenaline in the character perfectly. His dialogue delivery is just amazing and the action sequences considering he did them all by himself is just commendable. Watch out for Saif’s jump from a great height. It’s terrifically done courtesy Allan Amin.

With due credit to all the actors in the film, Race wouldn’t be all that racy if it wasn’t for Saif. Watch out the dialogue where he addresses his younger brother on the funda of winning-losing and on the outcome of betrayal where he blows up his jockey’s car.

Akshaye Khanna does really well too. Abbas –Mastan always emerge in bringing out the negative traits in Akshaye with ease. The wickedness in Akshaye is expressed well with his smile. But the only problem here is that Akshaye has done such roles before for Abbas-Mastan thus there lacks a certain amount of shock value.

Bipasha Basu isn’t all that great. Her acting skills haven’t really been explored. It’s more of her sex appeal that has been tapped in film. Bipasha’s styling somehow fails to leave an impact; her outfits do nothing more than provide the viewer some eye candy. But credit goes to Bipasha for doing some great action sequences in the film.

On the other hand, Katrina Kaif emerges victorious. Her acting isn’t the finest around but much better than her previous flicks. She carries the secretarial role with complete elegance and ease. In fact, her styling has been sleek and apt. She carries that executive look as well as the sexy attire with ease.

Anil Kapoor and Sameera Reddy make an entry at the interval stage. Anil is ok as the cop, but trust me his jokes are really poor. Even the characterization with different fruits at various points in the film fails to create any impact. Sameera Reddy has nothing much to do in the film besides try and ask some stupid questions. Sameera too has just been used to create the so called ‘Sexy Look’ of the film.

Johny Lever comes in for one scene and really impresses and is spontaneous with his jokes. He surely deserves more comic roles.

The true winner of the film is none other than action director-Allan Amin. He is just terrific and it’s his action and stunts that really justify the title of the film. Amin impresses with the well choreographed explosions, Saif’s fall, edgy car stunts etc. Amin is the true star of race.

Cinematography by Ravi Yadav is top class as the film captures well the horse races, car stunts, beautiful locales of Durban and Dubai etc. Editing by Hussain Burmawala’s is ok. Maybe a few songs could have been chopped.

Dialogues [Anuraag Prapanna, Jitendra Parmar] are good. Styling [Anaita Shroff Adajania] works for Saif, Katirina , Anil and Akshaye.

Music by Pritam is Ok, but often comes in as a hindrance to the plot. Most of the numbers fail to leave that impact on screen especially Kim Hyung Sup’s-Sarang Haeyo track rendered in Hindi by Atif Aslam. The picturisation is so kiddish ; with just a single interaction you see Akshaye Khanna whose voice firstly doesn’t suit Atif already kind of romancing Bips. ‘Zara Zara touch me’ and the title track impress. Background score [Salim-Sulaiman] is really intense and adds to the action. Choreography [Bosco-Caesar and Ganesh Acharya] is good.

On the whole, Race isn’t the best thriller around but the action is sure to keep you hooked on. Saif fan’s will surely not miss this one. The chances of race not faring well at the box office is unlikely as it’s been a while since the cinegoers had any releases and this flick is sure to appeal to the masses. If not for the action and music, the pretty ladies in the film will assure a hit.

26th July at Barista

Cast & Crew:

Banner: Radha Pushpa Entertainments
Cast: Simran Vaid,Rohini Hattangadi,Paramveer,Ashish Duggal,Rita Joshi,Kabier Sawhney
Direction: Mohan Sharma
Production: Sumeet Chawla

26th July is one date Mumbai people will never forget. The city came to a grinding halt as unprecedented rains stopped rail and bus traffic, silenced mobiles and tripped power lines. Life in Mumbai came to a standstill as torrential rains killed people and caused heavy financial losses. Everyone you met had a story to tell of horror, of humanity, of determination, of despair.

26th July At Barista is about an assorted mix of individuals who get stranded in a coffee shop on the fateful night. Unfortunately, the cinematic experience is an amateurish effort. It evokes no sorrow or compassion because the trauma and turmoil that lacs of people underwent on the fateful day is depicted least convincingly on celluloid. It’s a haphazardly put together story that devotes a major chunk of the footage on a robbery and a cop questioning everyone in the premises.

Frankly, nothing works!

A number of people get stranded in a coffee outlet on 26th July. These include a script writer, an aspiring actress, a bunch of youngsters, a couple whose kids have gone visiting Esselworld and two office-goers, who eventually get attracted to each other. As hours pass by, a cop drops in, also a woman who has been gang-raped, a kid in search of her father and a troubled woman searching for a kid.

A tacky product, the interiors are shot in the dark [since the lights went off] and a few shots of the exteriors hardly recreate the horrors of the fateful day. The screenplay is lifeless and the direction, listless. The cast mostly comprises of new faces. Kabir Sawhney is okay, while Simran Vaid is passable. Rohini Hattangadi is there for a scene. Raju Kher hams, while Amita Nangia is alright.

On the whole, 26th July At Barista is a poor show all the way.

10,000 B.C

Plot: When his tribe is attacked, teenage caveman D'Leh (Steven Strait) must venture into the unknown to rescue his true love, Evolet (Camilla Belle), and his fellow tribesmen, who've been enslaved by a clan of mysterious marauders on horseback. Along the way he'll have to face saber toothed tigers, wholly mammoths, and giant mutant ostriches (seriously).

Review: Boy- did this suck! I guess Roland Emmerich must have really liked APOCALYPTO- because he's just remade it! Seriously- if you take APOCALYPTO, replace the Myans with cavemen, take out all the violence and make the characters speak English- you've got 10,000 B.C.

Ok- maybe I'm not being fair here. 10,000 B.C. was probably already in production by the time APOCALYPTO came out. The film was originally slated for a Summer 07 release, but the date was shuffled after 300 opened to boffo box office at this time last year, and the crafty execs probably thought they had another 300 in their hands with this film. Sadly- this film is no 300. Which brings me to the biggest difference between APOCALYPTO & 10,000 B.C. APOCALYPTO was good, 10,000 B.C. is not.

There are so many problems with this film that I hardly know where to begin. There haven't been a lot of good films made about cavemen over the years (with the exception of Jean-Jacques Annaud's QUEST FOR FIRE), and this is probably the goofiest caveman film to come along since the Ringo Starr vehicle CAVEMAN, from 1981.

One of the biggest problems with the film is the casting. Steven Strait and Camilla Belle are way too attractive to be playing credible cave people. Belle in particular, with her smooth skin and delicate features seems out of place. Twenty year old Strait does not fare much better- as he doesn't seem anywhere near weathered enough to be playing a caveman warrior. He also sports a dreadlock haircut that looks way too fashionable for the era, and at one point he even shows up with the hair pulled back into a ponytail! That's right folks- we get a prehistoric pony tail! I also didn't care for his artfully designed facial hair- which looked more first year college student than ancient warrior.

Another big problem is the script, which Emmerich co wrote with Harald Kloser- who also wrote the musical score. Kloser's bombabstic score is actually not bad at all, but the script is absolutely atrocious. Omar Sharif is on hand to provide some incredibly clunky narration- which serves no purpose whatsoever, but might be good for a few unintentional laughs. The anachronistic dialogue doesn't fare much better. These cavemen have a pretty vast vocabulary, and at times they even manage to toss off a couple of one liners (when a tribesman says D'Leh looks a little young to be leading a battle, he responds with a smirk "I'm older than I look" ) Seriously- at times it was like watching a feature length Geico commercial- although the Geico cavemen look more realistic.

Now I know some will think I'm being way too hard on 10,000 B.C. After all- it is a Roland Emmerich movie. Isn't it supposed to be cheesy? I have nothing against Emmerich- I've enjoyed most of his films, but when he's bad- he's BAAAAAAAAD. Take GODZILLA- which I think is the worst film of the 1990's. Is there anyone out there that actually enjoyed that film? Thankfully, 10,000 B.C. is not quite as bad as GODZILLA, but it's not as stupidly entertaining as INDEPENDENCE DAY, STARGATE, or even THE DAY AFTER TOMORROW. Even when Emmerich films are bad, you can usually at least sit back and enjoy the eye candy, but even the special FX come up short in this film. The CGI saber tooth tigers, and wholly mammoths look extremely fake and cartoonish, and the killer mutant ostriches- well, the less said about them, the better.

Grade: 4/10