Touted as a Magical Adventure, Drona is nothing of the sort. What it is, instead, is a total waste of time and money. The film is likely to appeal neither to adults nor to children and ends up in no man’s land, let down by a dull, unimaginative screenplay that fails to involve the viewer at all. Add to this, a total lack of thrills and no entertainment value whatsoever and you have a sorry excuse of a film that is beyond redemption.

The film tries too much for its own good. It mixes elements of Harry Potter, Hollywood fantasy and adventure spectacles, graphic novels, Amar Chitra Katha comics and Hindi cinema clichés to ultimately become a total khichdi. Drona tries hard to be a big-budget visual spectacle and admittedly money has been pumped into its action sequences and special effects while the film has been shot in locales like Prague, Bikaner and Namibia but since the storyline is trite, it all comes to nothing.  Also, the film's cause is not helped by some extremely tacky SFX and an insipid, uninspiring Production design.

Even the star cast fails to salvage the film. Abhishek Bachchan sincerely gives it his all and tries gamely to make the film work but he is totally defeated by the inane screenplay. The fault is his. This is what happens when you blindly agree to do a film on the basis of contacts and friendship rather than on the strength of the screenplay and cinematic ability of the filmmaker. One thought he might have learnt his lesson from Bas Itna sa Khwaab Hai (2001)... Priyanka Chopra acquits herself quite well as an action heroine who can kick ass. If only some thought had gone into her styling, characterization and performance, one might have got something to comment on. For Kay Kay Menon, otherwise an extremely fine actor, Drona, is undoubtedly the nadir of his career so far. Hitchcock always maintained that stronger the villain, the better the film for then the hero has to then be that much more effective to quell the villain. 'Gustaaqi Maaf' Mr Menon, but Gabbar Singh or Mogambo, Riz Raizada ain’t. He’s nothing more than a buffoon who must have made you cringe a million times over while playing him. Jaya Bachchan’s special appearance as Maharani Jayati Devi adds nothing to the film either.

Technically barring a couple of well executed action sequences, there is nothing much to write home about. The climactic fight between Drona and Riz Raizada is particularly unimaginative and never rises to any great heights whatsoever. The music is most disappointing, the background score desperately overblown to hide the ineffectuality of the film while the placement of songs in the narrative clearly shows a total lack of cinematic sense. Jeena To Aise Jeena, in particular, has no place in the film. It just springs up from nowhere and neither is it helped by some extremely ordinary choreography and an unexciting picturization. The less said about the mother – son song meant to create a poignant moment between the two, the better. When will our films ever get out of 'Mere Paas Ma Hai' syndrome??? But the most disappointing section of the film is undoubtedly the bit shot in Prague showing Abhishek with his adopted family. You see nothing of what makes it arguably the most stunningly beautiful city in the world.

All in all, totally avoidable.