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Cringeworthy, this one

Bollywood seems to be on the franchise trip these days. There was Dabangg and then there was Dabangg 2; there was Kya Kool hai Hum and there was Kya Super Kool hai Hum; and for some franchises that were up and about before directors thought of it as an ingenious move — the Khiladi series, the No.1 flicks... If the film fraternity should get a drift from most of these recent box office duds — it is along the lines of — if you don’t pack a punch, don’t bother hitting out at all.

Race 1 (let’s call it that for lucidity’s sake) was good, in fact it was one of the best thrillers Bollywood produced, we’ll give it that too. The twists were unexpected, the sex appeal was raw and the betrayal was brilliant. So when
Race 2
came about, we expected Abbas-Mastan to notch all the aspects up by a good few beats. After all, they did have bolder heroines, better beefed up heroes and a really good soundtrack.

But as luck would have it, Race 2 rushes in to crash and burn.

The movie flits through vague timelines, bad plots and dialogues that make you cringe to bring about a terrible catastrophe of a climax. Dear directors, by making absolutely everyone doublecross each other does not assure a hit. Live and learn.

Saif Ali Khan returns as Ranveer Singh and this time he takes on Armaan Malik (John Abraham), Elena (Deepika Padukone) and Omisha (Jacqueline Fernandez) to trump them in a bad board game of money and power. It takes directors a while to establish why Ranveer must go after the casino owner, a crime lord of sorts who works on and off with a mafia godfather (Aditya Pancholi) — hurting your head already? Well then!

There is revenge which is strangely misplaced and develops in stunted leaps and bounds over the entire course of the movie. The women keeping the brawn company are sexy, they are exceptionately well dressed and oh wait... they are also very daft. Racing through Italy and Istanbul and ending in an absolutely ludicrous fight in an airplane and a car floating away with the power of four parachutes. We are cringing inside still.

Race 2
loses the plot when too many betrayals overlap. The directors should have paid heed to this almost inevitable loophole. Too many cooks...remember? In all fairness, had the editing been tighter and some unneccessary twists chopped off, Race 2 could have been decent. That is as generous as we feel. But sadly, it is not. It is not a heist film, it is far from being possibly touted as Bollywood’s foray into the likes of sexy Hollywood heists. The action is best when Armaan takes on a fighter in a cage. And Anil Kapoor and Ameesha Patel in their avatars of Robert D’Costa and his secretary Cherry are just plain irritating.

The music is great, Race 1 had better choreography. We give the movie one star. Half more for the ladies who look awesome. Strike this one off your ‘must-watch’ list and do yourselves a favour.
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