Abbas Mastan give Bollywood a perfect
start. What could the audience ask for? A promo that this is based on a western
film dealing with a heist; a cast heavy with stars, bikini clad actresses,
twists and turns till you have consumed your jumbo pack of popcorn; stunts
aplenty; a foreign tour including Amsterdam, Russia, Sydney, Auckland,
Wellington; Johnny Lever for standard humour, Omi Vaidya for added fun. For
dialogues you have gems like: There is no alternative to the best; if you want
to be a big Player, take big risks; Aakhri twist villain nahi, hero ka hota
hai.
Players is inspired by some Italian Job. It deals with a whole set of guys and
gals involved in a heist with historic significance. Now lets take this part
seriously: The Russians have chosen this year to return to Rumania tons and
tons of gold and like most others have not seen Boney Kapoor’s flop show: Roop
Ki Rani Choron Ka Raja. Familiarise your self with the guys, gals and their
roles: Victor Dada (Vinod Khanna) is in jail in black over alls helping his
jailors lessons in criminology; his pupil in chief Johnny Mascarenhas (Abhishek
Bachchan) and his partner in crime Ria (Bipasha Basu). The two meet once in six
months commit a fraud and leave. In the mean while Johnny is also spending time
with Naina (Sonam) who refuses to meet up with Dad Victor in jail and is busy
getting a degree with a thesis in hacking. Victor is busy recruiting the team
of Players (the best for the gold heist) Recruitees include a magician Ronny
(Bobby Deol), explosives expert Bilal Basheer (Sikhander Kher), prosthetics
expert Sunny Mehra (Omi Vaidya) and hacking specialist Spider (Neil Nithin
Mukesh).
The group of Players now plan though the script how they with their
intelligence and ingenuity would pierce through iron curtain and the railways
of the frozen region (in sharp contrast to here in before referred RKRCKR) when
the train robbery is through arid dessert sands. All is well and the team
executes the plan with exactitude and shows the police there to in poor light.
Now you know why it is tough time for Putin.
Post interval is the turn and twist inspired not just by that Italian Something
but also more original films like Tahshan, Race, Dus and the like. The team
members are all tying to out smart one another though Auckland and Wellington
(this explains why we do badly on every tour to New Zealand).
We are now taken through this palatial mansion where the Gold Retainer is
having all the fun and going amuck with gadgets and extending beyond
imagination the possibilities of technology. He makes our Gali guy look like he
was living in a hermitage. You almost wonder if this is heading towards the
Affluent Brave New World. Huxley and Asimov not withstanding, we are rushed
through fast cars, picturesque scenes, interesting turns and twists, guns,
gals, gold and gold rush. Do not waste your time thinking. That is something
you do before you ticket your way to an Abbas Mastan thriller. Just lie back
and enjoy the speed and thrill. This is true to the promised genre of the duo.
Players is the symbolic start of the year: Coming events cast echoes before.
Of the cast while Bipasha tries, it is Sonam who looks glamorous and ideal for
this kind of cinema. She is not required to act and with no challenge on that
front, she caries herself with great grace. Bobby Deol continues his
somnambulist phase. Abhishek is cool and takes responsibility. There is still a
stiffness to his screen presence but he makes good advantage of it and looks
like he is walking in straight from the sets of the many Dhooms he is involved
in. Neil Nithin has a long role and is smart. Who knows, perhaps he could shift
to negative roles. He could prove like grandpa, that his range may be limited
but still very good. For that too, he will have to work
At the end of it you realize that behind every great school is a group of scoundrels and before every exit item number shouting dhoom dhoom there is a lot of dishum dishum.
L. Ravichander