DHOOM:2 Review
It’s been a while since I’ve seen any Bollywood cinema, so I thought I’d check out some of the latest offerings from the world’s biggest film industry. Here’s the first review:
India’s Bollywood film industry has a long tradition of “borrowing” ideas, style and even entire plots from Hollywood, but somehow these films usually remained uniquely Indian. Lately, though, this seems to be changing. Bollywood is no longer happy just adapting western style, now it wants to be us.
This is evident in the new Bollywood film Dhoom:2, which I just viewed on DVD. The original Dhoom (2004) also took great pains to be as hip, modern, and as western as possible, but now it looks positively antiquated compared its sequel.
Dhoom was a buddy cop action-comedy pairing a no-nonsense Mumbai policeman, Jai (Abhishek Bachchan) with a bumbling motorcycle mechanic, Ali (Uday Chopra) against a motorcycle riding thief (John Abraham) and his gang. The film liberally stole from western music videos, kung fu flicks, Jerry Bruckheimer films, and especially American racing movies like The Fast and the Furious. However, it managed to be fresh, exciting, funny, inventive and still very much of its home culture.
That can’t be said of its sequel. There’s not a sari in sight in Dhoom:2. In fact, if the characters didn’t speak mostly Hindi or break into the occasional song and dance number, the film could be easily mistaken for a Hollywood production. It has a terrible case of Hollywood-itis, which ultimately leads it to an early grave. Like most Hollywood sequels, Dhoom:2 is dead set on being bigger, louder, flashier, and more outrageous than it’s predecessor. As such, it also ends up flabbier, less focused and much less entertaining.
This time our heroes are after a ingenious criminal and master of disguise known only as Mr. A, played by Bollywood’s reigning young hunk, Hrithik Roshan. The boys team up with Jai’s old college sweetheart, Shonali, (Bipasa Basi) a sexy female cop to hunt down the thief. Complicating matters is a female copycat thief, played by the amazingly gorgeous Aishwarya Rai, who wants to become Mr. A’s partner.
For about the first hour, the film is great fun, as it focuses on Mr. A’s clever robberies, and the cops’ attempts to catch up with him. There are some wonderful stunts, including Roshan sand-surfing behind a train, and an exciting chase scene. Unfortunately, this all comes to a screeching halt as soon as Aishwrya Rai’s character comes on the scene. Immediately, the film bogs down into a clichéd, ridiculous love story between Rai and Roshan, leaving our cop protagonists to become secondary characters. The film stops dead in its tracks, deciding to spend far too much time on a rain-soaked love scene, instead of continuing with the fun cat-and-mouse chase.
At this point, style and flash become the film’s entire reason for being. It’s full of moments that exist only to look cool. In fact, nearly every time one or more of the principal actors walks somewhere, they’re filmed in slow motion, with the wind whipping through their hair, and pounding music in the background. So much time is spent on this, they should change the film’s title to The Cool Slow-Mo Walking Movie. And how many times does Roshan have to parade around shirtless? By two hours in, I’ve had enough of this guy’s abs to last me a lifetime. Yes, Roshan and Rai are both extremely beautiful people, but the film just becomes a showcase for their beautifulness. There are at least two too many repetitive, Janet Jackson rip-off dance numbers featuring these all too perfect specimens shaking their stuff. They even keep dancing during the end credits!
I would have probably tolerated all this if their romance were remotely interesting. Instead, it just gets weird and completely wrong-headed, culminating in a jaw-droppingly twisted scene involving Russian roulette. This bit just ruins the mood of the entire picture. Thankfully, the filmmakers tack on a fun action scene in the final fifteen minutes, as well as an epilogue that makes the romance seem a bit less uncomfortable. Unfortunately, it’s way too little, too late.
The original Dhoom was a tight, exciting little picture. Dhoom:2 emerges as a huge disappointment. If it focused on plot, story and action, instead of on how damn good it’s two “guest-stars” looked, it would have been a terrific film. Instead, it comes off as a weird two-headed beast, grafting dull music and romance onto fun action-comedy. Like in the old sci-fi movies, one head has to control the body, and unfortunately, the crappy bits take over here, resulting in a completely infuriating viewing experience. Dhoom:2 rates a C-.
Oh, perhaps I should also note the DVD itself, since it too shows obvious signs of western influence. Usually Hindi DVD were no frills, bare bones affairs; The movie, no extras, in a plain DVD case. Not here. We get a two disc set, featuring a bunch of behind the scenes extras in a fancy pull-out cardboard case, much like those used for the Curb Your Enthusiasm sets. Guys, remember, you can dress a skunk up in an evening gown, but it's still going to stink!
In case anyone is still interested in the film, here's a preview, containing most of the good bits.
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