Director: Rohan Sippy
Cast: Abhishek Bachchan, Rana Daggubati, Prateik, Bipasha Basu and others
Rating: **
Bollywood has showcased Goa in different ways. A great place to unwind (Dil Chahta Hai), an ideal location for screwball comedies (Golmaal series) or even cute love stories (Honeymoon Travels Pvt Ltd). This one explores the beach town's prime export, drugs.
"Rape, tourist ki maut, prostitution, all crimes are linked to drugs," says a cocky politician. He skipped pollution and population? Anyway, he's requesting angry young ACP, Vishnu Kamath (Abhishek Bachchan), to consider the task of sweeping Goa off all illegal intoxicants. With little hesitation, Kamath accepts the job. But only under the condition that he gets to pick his team and that he is allowed to play by his own rules (unlike other action heroes who love being forced into teams and pushed around by rule books?).
Kamath teams up with Rane (a very animated Govind Namdeo) and Mercy (random Goan cop) to bust every rave party and shady hotel room in Goa. Mercilessly kick-slapping just about anyone, Kamath cracks skulls, shoots bulbs, breaks furniture and generally makes a lot of noise. And suddenly, to accelerate the film, we break into a montage and Kamath breaks into a rap. The lyrics go, "Thai! Thai!" and so do the visuals. Soon Kamath has slaughtered druggies, peddlers and if you go by numbers, most of Goa. If not by smashing their skulls, then by his horrendous rapping.
One of Kamath's arrests happens to be teen-footballer Lorry (Prateik Babbar), a first-time cocaine-carrier who wanted to jumpstart his career. And yes, this 'carrier and career' reference is used twice in the movie. Though a silly reference, this will hopefully educate those who pronounce the two in a similar way. Lorry's parallel story is too boring and inconsequential to the larger plot and can be safely avoided. Lorry's best friend, DJ Joki (Rana Daggubati) wants to save him and volunteers to help Kamath in his pursuits. He does so between dancing, singing and making love to girlfriend Zoe (Bipasha Basu). A certified airhostess, Zoe wants to fly for an international carrier but ends up becoming a carrier (of drugs) and her career is restricted to serving Goa's most illustrious drug lord, Lorsa Biscuta (Aditya Pancholi). Now, Kamath wants to bite into Biscuta and his cronies, so you do the rest of the connections.
The film's post-production is crisp as every smash is haunting and will get hearts pounding. So what if Deepika's item song is weary and didn't do the job! Although, this time we can't even blame Pritam for a failed item song, since it's just his take on the original cult classic. Abhishek is enthusiastic, his punches aren't. With a little less gnashing of teeth and better dialogue delivery, give it another 25 movies and Junior B will be the next big action hero. Prateik really needs to attend to his 'cranky-whiney-baby' voice that is disconnected from the rest of him. Rana is a promising find and is surely here to stay.
Oh, and yes, there's a Michael Barbossa who controls the entire drug scene and is rumoured to be the master of the universe. So will Kamath find out who is the great Barbossa? Will Biscuta crumble under pressure or gobble Kamath without chewing? Will Lorry be sorry at the end of this story? Will Joki ever realise that a DJ is supposed to be behind a console and not slinging a guitar and belching out love songs? These questions are best unanswered. So, I will leave you with the stimulating moral and parting line of the film, "If you die in Goa, you're stranded in Goa forever." What does this even mean? Go figure.
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