Phoenix Reflections

Rating: 3/5

Poster : Made in Photoshop CS- Afshan Ahmed

Venturing into new heights of exhilaration, director duo Abbas-Mustan’s Race has all the right Indian spices to keep the ‘janta’ at the edge of their seats. Packing the reigning stars of the industry, roping in the best designers and coupling all that with a mash of thrillers of the past, Race has managed to make it to the finish line first.

Meet Ranvir (Saif Ali Khan) and Rajiv (Akshay Khanna), half-brothers who own a stud farm in Durban, South Africa and are the biggest bookies in the horse racing circuit. Ironically for all the money they splurge, their land is mortgaged to the bank and they technically don’t own much save for a big bucks insurance policy that their father took out in their name. And when there is money involved needless to say all family ties are challenged. But who’s playing whom? Moving in a serpentine manner just when you begin to flow with one characters scheme, the movie unravels a sub-plot catching the audience’s off-guard. While Rajiv plots an elaborate murder of his brother, Ranvir has many more surprises up his sleeve.

The female leads, Sophia (Katrina Kaif), Ranvir’s secretary and Sonia (Bipasha Basu), an upcoming model serve as arm candy and help to spin a web with the brothers while being caught in the same. Anil Kapoor who plays a cop along with an assistant, Sameera Reddy are introduced after the interval for comic relief.

Shot in South Africa, India and Dubai the movie’s breathtaking locales can be enjoyed through the bird eye view technique all courtesy ace cinematographer Ravi Yadav. Narration is spiced up through razor sharp editing introducing fast cuts and quick transitions for momentum. However, it seemed like style overtook the production aspect of the film with emphasis on details like how each character should dress/sport to portray their personality.

A Bollywood masala isn’t complete without the traditional song and dance. Music director Pritam has churned out yet another album that will be a hot favorite at clubs for many nights to come and Pehli Nazar sung by Atif Aslam will be on everyone’s valentine recordings this season.

In the acting arena Saif Ali Khan and Akshay Khanna earn two thumbs up for rendering performances with aplomb adding yet another winning performance to their illustrious repertoire. Anil Kapoor comic timing did manage to find applause in the hall. All the women made fashion statements but when it came down to performing, their omission wouldn’t have made a difference to the movie. Katrina Kaif was all Barbie and reminded me someone giving a speech at the podium. Sameera Reddy as the cop’s sidekick was the beauty without the brains.

Living up to the hype, the movie has managed to pull out from the pile of low grade films the film industry has been bombarding the audiences with. After straying from their genre for a bit, director duo Abbas-Mustan are now back on track with what they do best, thrill with all the frill.