The Hindu : Andhra Pradesh News : Narrative that’s high on speed, thrills, glamour

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Monday, Mar 24, 2008
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Andhra Pradesh

Andhra Pradesh

Narrative that’s high on speed, thrills, glamour

Oomph and more: The lead actors in a still from "Race"

Film: Race

Cast: Saif Ali Khan, Akshaye Khanna, Anil Kapoor, Bipasha Basu, Katrina Kaif, Sameera Reddy

Director: Abbas-Mustan

Hindi cinema is getting daringly young. And the youngsters will have no reason to complain with Abbas-Mustan’s latest film: there are three girls, each more inviting than the other. Only a couple of notches above being bimbos, they are like sweets in a confectionary shop. Each more tempting, each more sinful.

There is Bipasha Basu brimming over with sensuality. Playing the love interest – well, love if you can substitute lust for it – of Saif Ali Khan and Akshaye Khanna, she gets to occupy more screen space, and proves that the spark of “Jism” has turned into a flame, bright and hot. She wears so little. But with each passing frame manages to prove that it was actually a little too much!

Katrina Kaif, she who can barely say a dialogue in Hindi, still manages to get the pulse racing with her interesting mix of innocence and oomph. She has a teenager’s face to go with an adult woman’s body. Again, as one of the girls in the two heroes’ life, she shows no acting skills to detract from her well-proportioned body.

The directors don’t expect her to be ever a contender for the best actress awards either. So, they let her body do the acting, her clothes all the appealing.

Then there is Sameera Reddy, been there, done that. And keen to do it once more! She has a cameo, a take on the good old Kitty of the famous Karamchand serial. Together the girls raise “Race” to an instant gratification exercise, a film high on speed, thrills, glamour.

A film oozing with sensuality, a film driven by libidinal and kinetic energy. In many ways, it is a typical example of modern-day cinema: the guys race cars, show off their bronzed bodies.

The girls hold on to their arms and come into their own in the swimming pool, on the dance floor of a bar and the like. The lyrics don’t challenge the grey cells, the pace of the films does not allow one to think too much either.

The music is ear-catching, the cinematography eye-catching. Together, they provide you a film that is good to enjoy when you are inside the theatre but give you very little to take home or to prompt a repeat visit.

That is okay, but what is the film all about? Set in the picturesque South Africa, it is a typical Abbas-Mustan film. Here Saif and Akshaye are two brothers, each of whom is after an obscene sum of insurance money their father had invested in them! For either to get the insurance money, one of them has to die. Simple?

Well, knowing the director duo, nothing comes simple or predictable. So, here too there are quite a few twists and turns. Or as some would say, too many twists and turns.

Anil Kapoor as an investigating agent, a la Pankaj Kapur of the ‘Karamchand’ serial, gets the best one-liners as he digs into fruits, and tries to find the culprit for the death of one brother. Of course, he is not above board himself.

And considering, he is said to be single after 40, and has Sameera for a secretary, the dialogue writer has a field day with innuendoes.

The masses don’t mind, they laugh, they clap, they enjoy each of his time-tested gimmicksSaif and Akshaye sail through their parts. They are good without either trying to step beyond the expected.

And the girls? They know that the easiest way to a man’s heart is no longer through his stomach. So, they concentrate on the right areas with the desired results.

The film? Well, as one said, it is a film you can enjoy if you do not ask too many complicated questions of logic and common sense.

ZIYA US SALAM

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