Race | A pReview
Abbas-Mustan’s Race is scheduled to release this week. The film stars Saif Ali Khan, Aksahye Khanna and Anil Kapoor. The film also has Bipasha Basu, Katrina Kaif and Sameera Reddy to do the requisite dance numbers during fillers. As usual, this Abbas-Mustan flick is touted as a thriller. And as usual, ever since Ajnabee happened, I look at an Abbas-Mustan film with trepidation.
In a recent interview, the brothers have this to say about the movie:
The story was small earlier; we had been working on it since early 2006. Initially, the story ended at the interval. The basic story is the rift between two brothers and the race to compete, outsmart and outwit each other — the race of life towards success where one falls prey to greed.
Initially it was a small movie. Ok, so did they add more depth to the characters to make the movie longer and more enjoyable? Na, they took the easy way out. Yes you guessed right they took refuge of item songs.
But this time, we wanted to add glamour (read: Skin Show), action (shot in ultra slow-mo to take up more screen time) and more item numbers(!!). What we wanted most was a twist in the tale. The more twists a story has, the more interesting it becomes. We also thought of having a multi-starrer film.
All those of you who thought that you should have a character driven story first, and then have actors suitable to play these characters, should take a running jump to a nearby well. From the mouths of acclaimed director duo you have it that first you got to ensure that the saleability factors are incorporated into the movie and then you can work all that into the story. The relevance of such addendum to the storyline is off course irrelevant in the larger scheme of making table profit.
And just to show that their sense of humour is intact, they make the following statement:
In the case of Naqaab, we thought about the story in just three-four months when Race was delayed. It did quite well.
Naqaab did quite well!!??! In addition of it being the worst movie that they have made, the movie also went out of the screens even before the glue of its posters got dry.
Abbas-Mustan for me, have gone through three phases. Phase One was when Khiladi (1992) and Baazigar (1993) hit the screens and wowed us one and all. Both the movies thrilled and shocked the movie goers. In those days I was studying in school and prior to these movies I never paid attention to directors’ names. It was after Baazigar that I swore that ill watch every Abbas-Mustan movie that hits the marquee. During this phase the duo believed that content was king and if you concentrate on the story success will follow you.
Then came the Third Phase wherein they only concentrate on style – of the promos. The story and the movie was damned and the entire focus was on getting the audience in during the first week. 36 Chinatown and Naqaab are the results of this phase. Somehow I feel that Race will also belong to this category.
Off course we’ll know all about it in a couple of days, but I for one won’t be watching the movie unless it receives favourable reviews. And if Mr. Adarsh writes something like “On the whole, a well made slick entertainer that should be an instant success at the box-office” and gives it 4 stars, then the movie is definitely a No-Go for me.
Anurag Kashyap
Abhay Deol
Dibakar Banerjee
Hansal Mehta
Khalid Mohamed
Kundan Shah
Anish Kuruvilla
Jaideep Verma
Manish Gupta
Navdeep Singh
Bhavani Iyer
D. Santosh
Onir
Ashvin Kumar
Ramu Ramanathan
Sudhir Mishra
Pankaj Advani
Revathy
Saurabh Shukla
Shilpa Shukla
Sujoy Ghosh
Suparn Verma
Santosh Sivan
Shashank Ghosh
Shivajee
Pavan Kaul
Partho Sen-Gupta
Prroshant Naryannan
Sam Langoria
Satish Kasetty
You can reuse most of your article to write preview and review of Tashan. I will go watch Russian Circus instead.
:o. Wheres the movie-preview?
Baazigar too is “inspired” from Kiss before dying. And the inspiration is not limited to the idea alone. The execution too is “inspired”.
Khiladi was their best effort …..Race will be another only-style-no-substance film…
race and tashan looks so similar. promos, style, looks and saif n anil kapoor r in both the films.
khiladi is their only movie which i liked…i also liked Baazigar…but alas it was a copy…johnny lever has some terrific funny dialogues in that movie…
Badshah is a cocktail, climax is lifted from “Nick of Time” and the remaining is mix of Rush Hour, Mr. Nice Guy etc..I just hate this duo for their blatant copies..I am pretty sure Race would be mix of 2-3 movies (if they are working on it from 2006, I guess that means they are doing permutation and combination of different Hollywood movies to come up with a “new” movie)
Phoenixnu.. I think Tashan looks much better.. Race, everyone’s wearing very generic clothing.. the typical black leather which supposedly represents either “cool” or “dark” or “badass” or all of the above. ~yawn~. Saif and Akshaye’s dialogues/delivery in the promo look intriguing.. just not sure if that’s intriguing enough for a night out at the cinemas or a sit at home on DVD in a few months…
As for Tashan, at least there’s some visibly disctinctive characters, and the action looks absolutely wild, which I prefer to the the clean, refined, totally-looks-planned-and-executed-to-perfection action sequences we’ve gotten accustomed to in the past few years
Rasik: You said
“khiladi is their only movie which i liked
I think they hit rock bottom after ajnabi.(dat was an OK movie)
Even in humraaz film was quite boring till interval with unnecessary songs and all. even in the 2nd half there were too many songs and a prolonged climax
Naqaab is definitely their worst movie.
I read in one of their interviews that “Naqaab was well ahead of its times”
–too muchhhh
Khiladi was their best work with good songs, suspense and comdedy (terrifc johnny lever).
though copied, Humraaz was their 2nd best movie.
very well balanced.
all others are average. but i liked watching their movies.
their first hindi film was Agnikaal starring jeetendra and Raj Babbar. before that they made successful films in Gujarati.
Khiladi was great but it was sort of inspired by Khel Khel mein (Rishi, Rakesh and Neetu). Baazigar was awesome, it brought the revival of anti-hero in a big way.
Yeah, I also liked Humraaz (except for last 20 minutes or so where they had to prove Bobby was the hero). Baadshah was spoofy and iffy comedy though it jumped from one genre to another.
Rest was average or worse.
I have not yet lost hope on Burmawala brothers but Race..umm..not too keen on it.
Just for laughs keep an eye on the grosses of Race.
The predictions are that it will equal or surpass the domestic take of Jodhaa Akbar.
With my sudden love for Bollywood post Jab We Met, I am seriously following the latest happenings. So, agree with the author (even though I have no means of watching the promos of Race or Tashan) but looks like it will be in the “Phase 3″.
The only one I watched was Baazigar and it was the last year of school and me being madly in love with Abhimanyu Rai (Fauji), made my way to the theater, this time only to fall in love with Shah Rukh Khan… so had thoroughly enjoyed it.
36 China Town – Might be Phase 3 as the story line was not well wrapped but my new found interest in Shahid Kapur made me watch this one on DVD recently. And, I did not mind watching it but that’s pure bias…my 2nd phase in life ….older woman falling in love with young Shahid.
I have my husband in splits with my current obsession, he just cannot believe it. But hey, he’s not complaining, I am providing him some good amusement here with my preposterous behavior and btw, I am loving my current obsession.
No Tashan or Race for me.
Just saw Race. They had one show at 8.30 here at Sydney in 1 theatre. I am suffering from acute migraine, acidity and nausea. Enough said?
So it was released in Aus before India hmmm…I am so happy to hear your comments, I had a feeling it will turn out to be like that, ‘Third Phase’ of Abbas-Mustan.
Just saw this too. liked it just fine. Hope it will be a HUGE HIT !!! :d
Preferred Race over Welcome by a galaxy !
Iss Desh ko kya ho raha hai?
I havent visited the theatre for soo many months..
No movies to see! Race? Tashan? These movies are a sick joke.
And i wont give up..
Better to starve hungry than eat S**T
U wanna see the best piece of Suspense movie ? See johhny Gaddaar!!!
the movie is brilliant!
Well, Abbas Mastan does the same tricks again…
a little known B grade flick rip off…
again the anti-hero kinda heroes…
however this time , upgrading from their usual two hero projects to three male stars.
The review at http://moviemagik.blogspot.com
Looking forward to your comments and thoughts
Now a days its a popular word “turns/twists in the tale”.And what that all mean is one or the other charactor is changing side.Someone who was at good side suddenly found standing on bad side.Thats fucking it.They cannot think beyond that.They can not have a story which in itself is suppense or tricky.Charactors must have to change the sides to give some surprises.
As expected from the obvious Taran Adarsh,
“On the whole, RACE is a superb entertainer all the way. It
I saw the movie
and i think its paisa vasoool
After a long time abbas mastan have come up with a good film
Though it was a bit too long in second half.
2 songs could have been easily removed from second half.
Ofcourse there are many loopholes – but u dnt get time to think abt them – its just so fast paced
aitraaz is one of the movies in my ’so bad its brilliant’ favs list…!
RACE!!…. I hope this movie races its way out of cinema halls.. Utter DISASTER!! ~X(
@AZAD
Hmm..that was news to me..pity even bazigar was ‘inspired’ but at least it was bearable.
@Rasik
Comedy seems to be a redeeming factor in all AM movies..they (and us) have to thank jonny lever for this.
@Anand G
my heartfelt condolences to u !!
@Vivek H
Boy isn’t this the pits..now not only are the movies predictable; even critics are getting predictable..god save bollywood !!
@Tushar.Nocturnal
Agree with u whole heartedly..after Jodha Akbar even i haven’t watched a hindi movie and with movies like ‘123′, ‘u me aur hum’ and tashan to follow..iam not sure if ill watch any movies in april as well.
and johny gaddar ROCKS !
@Mithun Gangopadhyay
Dude u may be right and i dont know whether to laugh or be happy about it :(
2nd biggest opening weekend ever domestic after OSO.
Clearly the divide between the plebs and the cinematic patricians is quite substantial.
I feel a post coming on. :d
I dont really empathise with people who believe that such mediocrity can co-exist with the truly beliigerent ones. That can never take the industry forward.
Co-existence is never possible. There shud be total annhilation of such type of cinema. People shud be bored of them.
And only when that happens, can the search for alternatives begin.
Like what happened with American Cinema in the 60’s. The death of classical American cinema was followed by the emergence of film-makers who were influenced by the New-wave film-makers.. The Godards, the Truffauts… And the result were movies like “Bonnie and Clyde”…
Only total snubbing of such movies can yield productivity.
Ah yes but those were the 60’s and 70’s before the complete fragmentation of the audience took place.
Hollywood has their tentpole strategy of releasing the biggest/dumbest films in the summer and reserving the arthouse and serious stuff for the fall and winter.
I don’t see the snubbing happening in India though especially with the talent lockdown which is taking places. Star actors and directors are booked for 2-3 years now with insane amounts of money being spent to lock them in.
Yeah Mithun. Well, I wasnt suggesting the method to renaissance; was suggesting the lead-up to the method..
But, its true. I guess the ideal situation here wud be to bombard the audience with a spate of successive releases and to condition them into watching the kind of films that we want them to. There shud be something inventive happening every Friday at the theatres. Condition them. Tell them, “This is what u r going to get”. Force them into watching it.
But again, I am leaning onto absolute idealism here. Also, one point of distinction. Newman and Benton who wrote “Bonnie and Clyde” were pure cinema magazine writers who fell under the charm of the New wave and wanted to make something like that in the American context.
Now, how many people working in the Media out here today even care for cinema as much as they care for their vocabulary. Which is why we see people like Subhash.K.Jha still coming up wid comments like “Taare Zameen is the new age Pather Panchali” and stuff like that.
Our film critics could have been writing about anything and they wud have survived with the same kind of dignity that they r today. The fact that they r writing abt cinema is our biggest bane..
Condition them. Force them. Tell them what to like.How is that not reverse fascism. Who is to decide what constitutes great cinema ? You, me or PFC ? So along with self appointed moral guardians we have to contend with aesthetic guardians as well ? We need Tooheys to help us decide.
The right of the individual to choose is absolute and there is no argument that anyone can make excepting life threatening circumstances which should supersede that right.
This isn’t about RACE or any other film for that matter. Race might be the worst film ever and that still doesn’t give anyone the right to call anyone who sees it a dunce.
Idealism is well and good but when you expect someone to pay for what you are selling it’s their prerogative to choose and ours to listen.
Just a final food for thought. I absolutely hated “Transformers” but I also realize that if Paramount hadn’t made half a billion dollars on it, then Paramount Classics wouldn’t have greenlit “No Country for Old Men” and “There will be Blood”. Viacom still hasn’t recovered cost on them but will amortize it from earnings of films like Transformers and Iron Man.
David Fincher would not be making “The Curios Case of Benjamin Button” for 150 million if the new Indiana Jones wasn’t also coming out.
Mithun: I see your point. But what if the proceeds of Transformers is used only to make Transformers 2? That is what is happening in our industry. Dhoom, Dhoom 2… did I hear Partner 2… Golmaal returns? Golmaal RETURNS??!!!!!! From where?
It mght be unfair to term everyone who liked Race a dunce. I guess the people who like it are predominantly people who have been only exposed to this kind of cinema. This might have hampered their taste buds. The problem (if it is one) is that majority of Indian ‘cinema-goers’ have not been exposed to all kinds of cinema. Therefore they do not have parameters to judge a movie. So anything remotely ‘new’ will appeal to them.
In saying so.. I really can’t see how a movie with the dialogue “choosoge kya…” can be a blockbuster. Sigh. Apocalypse.
A Jodha Akbar or RACE will fund Spotboy’s production slate for 6 months at the very least. It’s a symbiotic relationship and killing off the 800 pound gorilla won’t lead to anything.
As far as the appeal of RACE goes methinks it’s the exotic locations which prove to be the main attraction. As Marc Foster said bout “Quantum of Solace” ,
“People travel a lot more now, and with the Internet they
@Mithun
“Interested in inner journey”; that’s very deep..imho as long as people look at cinema only as means of escaping from their real life situations; the demand will only be of mindless entertaining movies.
the irony is that to escape from real life situations/problems, the only solution is to go deep inside u..
unfortunately we have a predominant fixation that cinema is only to entertain and nothing beyond that..that explains the humongous response to OSO, welcome(!!), partner and the likes.
A majority of stars also do not want to get into serious films cos they feel they might alienate the taste of the masses and thereby lose their fanbase (popularity)
imo if stars and production companies decide to work like the George Clooney-Steven Soderbergh combo, only then will we have a good mix of classy cinema and entertaining cinema..but as everybody is hell bent on making moolah on every production like there’s no tomorrow i dont see it happening very soon.