It is a sad state
of affairs in the Hindi Film Industry that the
actual quality of a film comes way down in the
hierarchy for it to be a success. Today it is
all about making a saleable proposal with an ensemble
cast of A 1 stars, then creating all the hype
and frenzy through marketing, flooding the market
with maximum prints so that essentially the money
is made in the first three days irrespective of
whether the film is good or bad, in fact more
often than not the latter. We saw this with Fanaa.
We saw this with Krrish and now we see
it with Dhoom 2. So yes, the film has
opened with a phenomenon initial and will probably
be one of the biggest money spinners ever. But
coming to the critical factor - How good is the
film? The answer is – not very good actually.
 Dhoom
2, essentially a cops and robber film with
cops Abhishek Bachchan and Uday Chopra out to
nail professional thief Hrithik Roshan, aims to
be a stylish, roller coster of a ride with spellbinding
action but neither are the action sequences convincing
nor are they innovative in conception even if
an attempt has been made to eloborately execute
them. We may spend more and more money in this
field and hire stunt directors from Hollywood
but somehow we still fall flat. Earlier on in
the year, Krrish and Don had some fine
action sequences but again they were good by Indian
standards only. Also looking at Casino Royale
and other films, Hollywood continues to mesmerize
us with fantastic sequences that look and feel
more real, living behind the exaggerated poetics
of Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon or The
Hero, the Matrix series and the
like but as usual we are a few years behind creating
action sequences that look anything but plausaible
and more in the lines of the latter films mentioned.
This after, paying Stuntmen and Action Directors
from abroad.
The film is a sequel to Dhoom, which
though an average film still had its moments,
was genuinely different from the usual Bollywood
stuff when it came out and had a rocking musical
score to boot. Dhoom 2 is supposed to
be a bigger, better, faster film but really is
just a bigger film with a bigger cast.
True, plotlines are incidental in films like
these providing the excuse for elaborate action
set pieces but even the wafer thin plot, repeated
from the earlier film, is full of holes. In an
extremely weak screenplay, potential situations
are created and chucked aside without any development
(or have they been reserved for Dhoom
3???) like the Jai Dixit, Shonali Bose angle.
College mates and ex flames, they meet again as
cops and clearly the sparks fly again even though
Jai is married and his wife is now heavily pregnant.
But then Shonali goes back, Jai goes to Brazil
and we don’t see her anymore. The characters
are not well fleshed out at all and the film hardly
has any human moments barring perhaps the Hrithik
- Aishwarya sequences once he finds out the truth
about her. That is one of the few sequences in
the film which works along with the epilogue,
the final twist being totally predictable nevertheless.
A thing about these final twists, here. The way
they are being used in our films like Don,
they actually end up negating the entire film.
If anyone salvages the film it is Hrithik Roshan.
Of course he has never looked better, he has the
author backed role and carries off a variety of
disguises but still, he clearly enjoys himself
playing the cool dude to the hilt.  Abhishek
Bachchan is adequate while Uday Chopra is well…Uday
Chopra. But it must be said he is better in the
Dhoom films and when padded by other
stars is a lot more bearable (unlike the hideous
Neil n Nikkie where he was the solo hero) and
does have the odd corny moment. Bipasha in a double
role (She also plays Shonali’s twin sister
Monali, staying in Brazil who takes a fancy to
Uday) suffers from badly sketched roles in both
avatars and frankly for all the skin show, adds
nothing to the film. Aishwarya Rai though looking
sexier than usual (though those wobbly knees are
a no-no), still has miles to go as an actress.
As the talkative Sunheri using ‘like’
in all her sentences, she is plain stilted and
irritating. Though she is the one character the
film goes a little into, we still don’t
feel for her or for her dilemma or the tension
of seeing which way would she go. And what is
it with all our actors’ English? Where do
all these accents come from???
Regarding the ‘stylish’ look of the
film and its characters, everything is overdone
and obvious to make the actors look ‘cool.’
If the girls have to be sexy, it has to be skimpy
almost non-existent clothes. (Aishwarya frankly
looked hotter in the Kajra sequence from Bunty
aur Babli) Why is it that even today, a lot
of the clothes our Bollywood actors wear is just
not wearable in real life even if the look has
to be stylized?
The music is hardly anything to write home about.
The songs are beat-oriented and ok for the dance
floor (Crazy kiya re) or while the film
is on but that’s about it. The title track
from the previous film, good though it was, is
hammered throughout the film to the point of irritation.
On the technical side, a film like this should
have had far more finesse. The cinematography
though eye catching in places is inconsistent
but this could be since the original cinemtographer
was replaced halfway into the film. The Brazil
sequences tend to drag and could have been trimmed.
And some of the stunts and special effects (the
final fall) are tacky to say the least. The sound
design and the background music are again loud
and obvious.
All in all, a major disappointment.
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