Movie Review: Race

The music is great. The plot of the movie was good. The acting was strictly O.K. The direction was, well, a tad bit immature. That’s the movie review for you in a nutshell.

The director duo of Abbas-Mustan have made quite a few interesting thriller flicks like Baazigar, Ajnabee, Aitraaz and 36 China Town. When me and my friends decided to go watch Race - first day first show, we probably forgot about the other disastrous movies made by the same duo. Most notable in that list of horrific movies would be Tarzaan: The wonder car. (How can anyone make a movie with that title?!) But I must say Race is not half as bad as most people make it out to be. Yes, it probably doesn’t live up to the expectations generated by the promos and the mind blowing music. But it is worth a watch.

The movie starts off with Anil Kapoor’s voice introducing the various characters- the two brothers (Saif Ali Khan and Akshay Khanna), the elder brother’s girl friend (Bipasha Basu) and the elder brother’s secretary (Katrina Kaif). Anil Kapoor himself appears in the movie (along with Sameera Reddy) just before the interval (remember the dialogue from the promos: “Ab ayega mazza!”). Rajiv Singh (Akshay Khanna) hates his elder brother’s success and despises the fact that he is always the second choice. He plots to kill his brother, Ranveer Singh (Saif Ali Khan) with the help of Sonia (Bipasha Basu). Yeah, she was Ranveer’s girlfriend, but Rajiv woes her…and then Sofia (Katrina Kaif) is married to Ranveer, but in reality she is going out with Rajiv…Confused? I think I would be better off not explaining the story line. After a certain point it gets a bit perplexing and that’s what keeps you glued to your seat.

Then why did I call the direction a tad bit immature? Because, the directors have still not grown up from their 90’s movies. Some of the scenes and placement of song sequences will take you back ten years down the “Bollywood memory lane”. And the O.K acting? Well, Saif, Akshay and Anil were good, like always. Bipasha was horrible in the first half, while she did pretty well in the second. I don’t know what Katrina Kaif was doing in the movie. Probably adding the glam quotient. Sameera Reddy’s performance was decent.

I went into the movie hall expecting nothing, probably the reason why I liked the movie. It’s a one watch. On five, I would give it three and a half.

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