Saif and Akshay Khanna star in Abbas-Mustan's Race I lost 2++ hours of my life to this useless, god-awful movie and I thought I should write a eulogy for my tragic loss. In a way, I deserved it. The signs were there right from the beginning but I insisted on wresting my better sense from the jaws of stupidity and sat through the whole thing.
The plot was so contrived that it seemed to be a montage of twists from other more interesting movies. There was the secret-lovers twist in which the lover on the surface commits the ultimate betrayal only for it to unravel later on that the lover's loyalties have always been with the hero and that they are secretly lovers. And then there was the it-was-obvious-the-hero-died twist in which the hero dies in some accident only to resurface at a pivotal point in the movie alive, hale and hearty. Of course, Race also didn't fail to employ the staple villain-upperhand twist in which for the better part of the movie we see the villain's plan working like clockwork and the hero seems to have run out of luck but later it will be revealed that all of it was part of a bigger plan that benefits the hero entirely. There was also the I'm-just-a-cripple (in this case secretary) twist in which a seemingly harmless character turns out to be deep in the web of deceit and lies.
Armed with this veritable list of twists, I suppose the screenwriters confidently thought that they have a blockbuster hit on their hands. After all, there were movies which had only one or two of the aforementioned twists and yet caused a sensation at the box office. Having all of them woven into the story should therefore be a moneymaker. But in weaving all these twists together, the writers forgot to include an essential and crucial thread: the story. And that is why I lost 2 hours++ of my life.
Race was anything but the heart-pounding, edge-of-your-seat thriller that the title suggests. In the end, it turned out to be a poor tribute to twists that have previously been masterfully employed by better directors, while it limps amongst the forgettable movies of 2008.
Armed with this veritable list of twists, I suppose the screenwriters confidently thought that they have a blockbuster hit on their hands. After all, there were movies which had only one or two of the aforementioned twists and yet caused a sensation at the box office. Having all of them woven into the story should therefore be a moneymaker. But in weaving all these twists together, the writers forgot to include an essential and crucial thread: the story. And that is why I lost 2 hours++ of my life.
Race was anything but the heart-pounding, edge-of-your-seat thriller that the title suggests. In the end, it turned out to be a poor tribute to twists that have previously been masterfully employed by better directors, while it limps amongst the forgettable movies of 2008.
1 comment:
Great review! I think you hit the nail right on its head. The movie never worked for me, especially after the tenth twist. I admire your effort to save other hapless souls.
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