 Race directed by thriller king Abbas-Mustan
is a fast paced action thriller. Abbas-Mustan are known for films like Khiladi (Akshay
Kumar), Baazigar (Shahrukh Khan), Humrazz (Akshaye Khanna). In Race they are
back with a powerful star cast - Anil Kapoor, Akshaye Khanna, Saif Ali Khan,
Bipasha Basu, Katrina Kaif and Sameera Reddy. In this movie Abbas-Mustan
attempted to include full masala like glamour, mind blowing set and cinematography,
gorgeous cast breath taking numbers. The fast cars, horse racing and the exotic
location of South Africa add value to the film.
The Story
Race is a slick but a complicated thriller
in which everyone in the film double crosses the others. It is a film about two
step brothers Ranvir Sing(Saif) and alcoholic younger brother Rajeev Sing (Akshaye).
These two brothers compete against each other since childhood. Ranvir is always
hungry for the success. On the other hand Rajeev is laidback and loves wine
more than the family horses. Their life revolves around horse racing from
owning a stud firm in Durban South Africa to betting huge amount money on them.
 Each one (Brothers) have an insurance policy of $100 million to their name. Sonia
(Bipasha), a beautiful upcoming ramp model is Ranvir's lady. Sofia (Katrina)
plays Ranvir's Private Secretary. She has a crush on Ranvir but never
reciprocate it.
The climax has started when Rajeev falls
for Sonia and married her. But evil
plans are taking shape in the minds of the protagonist one of the two brothers
will die and the other will inherit the huge amount of insurance claim. The
murder takes place. Detective Robert D'Costa (Anil Kapoor) and his foolish
secretary Mini (Sameera Reddy) try to solve the murder. But the story has not
ended. The another brother who is alive hold of the money. Directors Abbas-Mustan
throws on a couple of more twist.
Performances
Nowadays Saif is playing many experimental
role like Omkara and earlier Dil Chahta Hai and Ek Hasina Thi. In this movie he
played very powerful performances. In some action sequence he perform
creditably and beared looked made him stunning.
Akshaye Khanna stands out for his role. He
is superb.
Bipasha Basu is as glamorous as ever and
played her role to her limited best but some action scene she was really
praiseworthy.
Katrina Kaif looks beautifu l but did not do
much except for looking good.
Anil Kapoor provides much required comic
relief in the second half of the movie.He played his part well.
Sameera Reddy was dumb and poorly
performed.
Johny Lever was there only for one sequence
but he was quite spontaneous with his joke. He required more presence.
Directors
Directors Abbas-Mustan deserves credit for
their execution. This time Abbas-Mustan has done number of experiments with the
mystery, suspense just to hold the audience attention throughout the movie and
they succeed. But Race seems to be way too complicated although the attempt
made by them was sincere.
Others
Two more driving elements in the film that
is the Pritam's music which is loud, rocking and suit the mood of the film and
very well picturized especia lly Atif Aslam's "Pehli Nazar Mein". The background
music is also thrilling. Another element is stunt sequences directed by Allan
Amin, which really matches the title of the movie especially Saif's fall, car
racing etc. He is just terrific. Writer Shiraz Ahmed's screenplay has several
moments that prove his merit. The best part is, the writing is full of liveliness
and surprises. One of the hall marks is that
every character is out to double cross the other, each character has grey
shades and the dangerous games they treat in make it an exciting cinematic
experience. Ravi Yadav's cinematography is top-quality. The dazzling locales of
Durban, Dubai and Mumbai are captured audience attention. Camera Work is
stunning specially the car chase in the climax (never seen before on the Hindi
Screen). Dialogues (Anuraag Prapanna, Jitendra Parmar) are superb. Choreography
(Bosco-Caesar and Ganesh Acharya) has international aroma. Styling (Anaita
Shorff Adajani) is smart and sexy; she was also the costume designer of Dhoom-2
Race Verdict
Very twisted story plot. There is a ups and
downs in every twenty minutes made the movie complicated. It is impossible to
guess what the culmination would be. It would be much better if Abbas-Mustan
concentrate on more simplicity like previous block buster - Baazigar rather than
complicacy. But they have proved that they are the master of the thriller
movie. After the blockbuster of Khiladi and Bazzigar, Race might just add to
their list of hits.
Overall race is seems to be misled but fast
moving complicated thriller entertainer.
Grading - ****
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