Saturday, July 30, 2016

Movie Review: Dishoom

Buddy cop action movies were a specialty back in the '90s. These movies were a heady mixture of physical comedy and action thrills. Dishoom is a throwback to these films. Picture it like a cross between David Dhawan's Bade Miya Chhote Miya and Abbas Mustan's Race. This two-hero team up is unmistakably high on masala movie set pieces and easy to digest. It's classic Hindi movie fluff, updated with modern film-making styles. It won't challenge your ability to comprehend, neither will it offend your sensibilities. It'll sweetly settle in to your suspension of disbelief, just like popcorn entertainment should.

The movie kick starts with a missing Indian cricket star called Viraj (Saqib Saleem) somewhere in the Middle East. Viraj is a superstar and the one hope of Indian cricket, kind of like Virat Kohli. Once he goes missing, the Indian authorities send in their toughest cop Kabir (John Abraham) to investigate and rescue Viraj. Kabir has issues with authority, so in a bid to bypass the stifling police department in the foreign country, he decides to team up with the bumbling cop Junaid (Varun Dhawan). Junaid's number one unsolved case is that of a missing bull dog named Bradman. Kabir thinks he can have his way with the investigation by muscling out Junaid as his partner. So the unlikely team of a tough cop and a funny cop get down to tracking the cricket star and his kidnappers. The story is classic masala movie formula. Every situation in the movie is either a set up for an action sequence or a comedy gag. Jacqueline Fernandez steps in to add some glamour and romance to the proceedings.

Even though the concept of Dishoom is unoriginal, its got enough slick contemporary treatment to engage its audience. At just over 2-hours long, the movie seems like a breeze. It doesn't waste time with sentimentality or characterization, it just throttles from one scene to the other. There are car chases, bullet fights, running around, easy humour and just one song in the middle: Sau tarah ke. Dishoom is a snappy film. The helicopter stunt right at the end is a never-seen-before moment in Hindi cinema at least. The motorcycle and side carriage stunt is a slick throwback to movies like Sholay and Main Khiladi Tu Anari. Dishoom has the trappings to entertain fans of '80s and '90s movies.

The performances are okay. John Abraham takes care of the machismo while Varun Dhawan deals with the comedy. Both actors look at ease in their characters, effortlessly sailing through one gag after the other. Jacqueline Fernandez looks pretty but apart from sizzling in the Sau tarah ke song, she has very little to do. Saqib Saleem plays the cricketer and the victim and the only big challenge in his performance is the multiple shoulder dislocation. Akshaye Khanna plays the main antagonist and he's in the same form as he was a few years ago in Race. He makes the bad guy look good. But the stand out performer here is Akshaye Kumar in a two minute cameo playing a homosexual to hilarious effect.

The basic requisite of enjoying Dishoom is to not have any heavy duty expectations. This film by director Rohit Dhawan is the same brand of easy entertainment that his dad was known for. The movie starts with a song (Toh dishoom) and it ends with a song (Jaaneman). The new age filmmaker has just added a whole lot of style to the same old substance. And as it did 20 years ago, the gimmick still works out.

My Rating :  2.5 / 5 

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