Indian movie critics and Indian
movie-going public seem to be born out of different mothers. Every 100-crore
movie (the new benchmark of an Indian movie’s success) to have been released in
the recent times has been unanimously panned by the critics. It seems that
they expect an Oscar winning script every time the seventy mm screen flickers
to life, and nothing seems to satisfy their palate, unless it receives a
nomination to the Oscars. To be honest, efforts like Rowdy Rathore, Raam Leela, Son of Sardar, and
not to mention, Grand Masti justify their wrath; they might have been high on the entertainment
quotient, but some of them are utter regressive and deplorable in treatment,
and some of their dialogues make you cringe. However, that is the whole idea;
all an average Indian movie watcher wants is a few hours of wholesome
entertainment, paisa wasool if you
like it, something that gives them a respite from the dust and grime of daily
life, where they can live their dreams and forget their ordeals for a brief moment.
So what if it does not live up to the Hollywood counterpart, a dish that the
new generation of Indians with high disposable incomes has developed its taste
buds for, thanks to torrents and multiplexes? Hinterland India still lives and swears by the creations of Manmohan Desai, Subhash Ghai, Prakash Mehra, Yash Chopra, and
recently Farah Khan and Karan Johar.
This is where those movie critics
come up woefully short in trying to describe Dhoom-3. I don’t know whether they
were expecting Fast and the Furious or Gone in Sixty Seconds type of thrill, or
were mourning the lack of bikini-clad Katrina and some other femme fatale; the
simple fact is that Dhoom 3 is quite an entertaining movie. It doesn’t indulge
in to over-intellectual show-offs of heists, or brain-cell exploding implementation
of the perfect plan. It simply showcases the age-old formula of Bollywood in
true spirit; one which has stood the tests of time, the Chor-Police cat and mouse game, in unadulterated format. It helps
when the criminal mastermind is the greatest actor of his generation.
Abhishek Bachhan in a recent
interview had mentioned that Dhoom 3 doesn’t need Aamir Khan. I do not know
whether he was in high spirits or doped, but the fact of the matter is that
this is an Aamir Khan show. In fact, going by the recent quality of movies to
have hit the screens, not to mention Besharam
(couldn’t help the jibe), every Indian movie needs Aamir Khan. Without him,
this movie would have been just another heist movie, and going by the fate of Players, you do not sincerely need that.
Since this movie is propped on
the suspense element, one should not disclose the twists and turns in the plot,
although courtesy of spoilers on the social networking sites, it is hardly a secret.
However, for posterity’s sake, one would just say, the screenplay is well-knit,
taut and keeps you on the hook for the length of the movie. Songs and music in general, are nothing to write home about though, and one expected more from Pritam. Visually, however, the movie is pleasing to the eye, especially the Circus theme and the landscape of the Windy City (Chicago). The aspect where
this movie soars over the other movies in the Dhoom series is the emotional
quotient, and when you mix it in adequate amount with the adrenaline (read bike
chases and daredevil stunts), you’ve got a winner on your hands.
Nothing much can be said of the
other actors, as they’re fending for scraps, while Aamir Khan steals the
limelight, the punch lines, the show and of course, the money. Katrina should
really want to be a part of a 300 crore bandwagon, as there is no other
legitimate reason for her to sign this movie. The script reduces her to an item
girl, and again, an item girl; but it seemed the audience wasn’t complaining.
Uday Chopra is getting too old for the buffoonery, and by way of spending too
much time with him, it seems to have rubbed off on the tough cop Jai Dixit
(Abhishek) as well.
Dhoom 3 is a must-watch for all those real Indian movie fans who still love to have a good time at the movies, and love to watch them with friends, family and children . At the
end of the day, it is what the public wants, and my dear critic friends, Yeh Public Hai Yeh Sab Jaanti Hai.
