Dishoom
EROS INTERNATIONAL, Rs 299
Cast: John Abraham, Varun Dhawan, Jacqueline Fernandez, Akshaye Khanna, Nargis Fakhri, Akshay Kumar, Saqib Saleem
Director: Rohit Dhawan
A good action flick packed with lavish locations, fantastic production values and high-octane action sequences, including a stunning car helicopter-car chase. While the thrills pack a punch all over, sadly the storytelling is kept low and doesn’t really entertain much.
It is the year 2015, a cricket series is being played in the Middle East and India has just beaten Sri Lanka in the semi-finals in a nail-biting finish, all credit going to Viraj Sharma (Saqib Saleem). India now meets Pakistan in the finals in two days. Suddenly Viraj’s coach finds him missing from the hotel and his phone switched off too. He informs the cricket board and the minister for external affairs who says the team should return and the final be called off. Just then, she receives an email video of a man saying he’s a Pakistani fan and has captured Viraj. The fan says if the match is called off, he will kill Viraj.
The Indian government is thrown into a tizzy as they fly out their tough-as-nails cop Kabir (John Abraham) to rescue Viraj. Aiding him is Junaid (Varun Dhawan). The duo has barely a few hours to trace the missing cricketer. Their suspects include the mysterious Sam (Nargis Fakhri) whom Viraj was last seen talking to and a bar dancer-pickpocket-druggist Ishika (Jacqueline Fernandez), who later joins the duo to find Viraj, playboy Sameer Gazi (Akshay Kumar) and cricket bookie Wagah (Akshaye Khanna) and his assistant Altaf (Rahul Dev).
The countdown to the final match is only a few hours away. Amidst high drama on the seas, a rescue operation by Kabir and Junaid is the only way Viraj can reach the stadium and keep India’s hopes alive. Will Kabir and Junaid find out where Viraj is?
Good performances by the young and talented Varun keep you in splits with his humour, while the beefy Abraham sticks to a stoic expression right through the two hour flick. Jacqueline doesn’t have really much to do, but her antics add to the rescue scenes.
Verus Ferreira is a music journalist for over three decades. He is the author of The Great Music Quiz Book and The Great Rock Music Quiz Book and the founder of Musicunplugged.in
