Reviews

Ah well.. So Bond is dead. Well.. he actually died long ago, when horrendous deviations were injected in the films portraying Fleming's charismatic creation. Before that, with the ending of the Cold War, Bond had actually become redundant. No amount of contrived villainy of the Russians, Chinese, Japanese, Germans etc. Could bring back that good ol' feeling of British stiff upper-lip supremacy. When Connery was replaced, a little of Bond had died again. Various actors gave their interpretations, but Craig was no Bond. Enough has been written and discussed about the pros and cons of casting Craig - no point in repetition. With political correctness seeping in, the hype to include more female characters, and nonwhites became imperative. So M was portrayed by a cranky old lady. Miss Moneypenny and the present lady 007 also became nonwhites, as also Felix Leiter. No racism intended, but why not portray the Queen herself as a nonwhite? That would be the ultimate, is it not?

The present film is all senseless action, with a paper thin plot of world annihilation by nanobots (why does it always have to be world domination / world annihilation??), family revenge drama, Blofeld, Spectre, car chases, helicopters , explosions, bionic eyes and blah blah, in a desperate attempt to inject some creativity and excitement into a character who had actually died long ago. The attempt just doesn't work. Leiter deserves pity. The female 007 (Ms Lynch) is downright irritating and abrasive. It's odd to see Moneypenny leave her secretarial desk and engage in field action. Eddie Mercury, sorry, Rami Malek, is obsessed with poisonous plants (and little girls) and has set up a gigantic facility for bio-warfare. Why? What is his problem? From where did he get the money? There are no answers, only questions. Farewell, Mr Bond. It's a pity that you had to commit suicide. But at least the audience was prevented from following you likewise. Hoping there are no more re-boots of Fleming's suave spy. RIP. Amen.

Two jokers hunt for a flat package in a cave? Why? Who are they? No answers.

Fast forward few years.. we have a rather expressionless girl as a club singer, who sings tuneless songs. Male customers are besotted by her and meet a bad end. Enter our hero, but his pointless persistence pays, and he comes to know of her secret. The plot is interspersed with more tuneless songs and landscapes of Mauritius. We have a police inspector with an attitude, but basically incompetent. We have a gorgeous owner of the the club itself. She is the only redeeming feature of this film. A pity that she meets a bad end (who would own this beautiful club and stay in her beautiful house now? Me! Me! Me!). An ineffectual exorcist appears who is beaten up.. the demon here is pretty vicious (Is it Pazuzu from The Exorcist? No? Then who the hell is he? No answers). We have Lord Shiva's lost conch shell being retrieved within minutes from the ocean floor at night, by the hero, who does not have scuba gear. We have amulets and holy books and mumbo jumbo. All are pretty useless. The demon ultimately re-enters his favorite mirror. Story ends. I don't know what happens to the demonized mirror. Neither do the producer or the director of this garbage film.

Prequel or sequel matters not. What does matter is the tremendous build-up - the endless tracking of the heroine, the endless instructions, cameras, training, blah blah blah. One would naturally assume that this was an elite outfit of the government of India, where all the field agents were identified and trained in a similar way, so that they became ruthless killing machines. Unfortunately, no. It was clear that the other agents not that good, and were no match for the villain in question (who dominated without any training or tracking). In the very first scene, the villain dispatched several Indian agents to kingdom come. In a later scene, 3 agents (one of them distinctly out of shape, played by Zakir Husain) track the villain to his lair, but all are massacred. Not one could even put up a decent fight or fire a gun shot. WTF.

So it is left to our newly recruited female agent to kill the villain. That she does. Considering that the mission was so important that several countries were on the look-out for this dude, it is surprising that a rookie agent, undergoing training, is deputed for the job. In the meantime, we have Akshay Kumar who comes and goes. Why was a senior, more experienced agent not given the target? Simple. Because this movie was based on Shabana (the Muslim connection was pointless) and the villain had to be tackled by her, isn't it?

A load of local policemen storm the hospital at the end. Who called them and why? It seems that the Indian agent played by Kher called them. But why? No answers to this one.

Stay clear of this boring, pointless film.

This "episode" in the series is perhaps the weakest of the trilogy. Firstly, it will be gibberish for those viewers who have not seen the previous 2 films and are not familiar with the SBAG "universe." For those who are familiar, like me, I notice a lack of continuity and quite a few bloopers.

Firstly, this series was supposedly based on the badlands of the state of UP, where royalty (or ex-royalty), as well as gunmen, fleece the general rural populace, aided by a corrupt political system. This male dominated society also gives rise to frustration among the females living within the confines of the ruined palaces. Fair enough. It is another matter that the badlands of UP were not depicted too well - right from the language of the protagonists to the general landscape in SBAG I and II. I understand that the shooting of the first 2 films was done in a ruined mansion somewhere in Gujarat. OK, fine.

For some inexplicable reason, SBAG III has shifted to Rajasthan. The language, culture, the forts, palaces and landscape are now all Rajasthani. WTF. Poor editing ensures that few number plates of vehicles show UP... few also show RAJ... Once Rajasthan comes in, then the issue of turbaned ex-princes running hotels and acting as major domos to their guests comes up. The home of the Sahib and Biwi has also shifted to Rajasthan. Everything is different. The spectator is confused.

We all know that Sanjay Dutt is a label - simply to draw viewers. That he does, even though he has no role to speak of. He is incongruous in the film. And of course, he is no gangster in the first place. Plus the fact that he looks really aged now. Soha also looks aged and heavy.. she is the comatose second wife of the Sahib. Her father (Bunny) is no longer Raj Babbar but Zakir Hussain. Her end is not quite explained. Perhaps she will rise like a phoenix in SBAG IV.

As in the previous films, it is Mahi all the way. She is a bundle of contradictions. She is haggard. But remove her, and the series will collapse. Jimmy is handsome with a cruel charm, but gets dominated by Mahi, which is expected. Kabir Bedi (what is he doing here in the first place?) looks like an Egyptian mummy devoid of his bandage strips. He delivers his lines with a slur. He is unpleasant to watch. We also see a bloated Deepak Tijori, a senseless, confused Nafisa Ali and also, Chitrangada Singh, with a strangely stiff upper lip. Has she taken the help of prosthetic surgery also? Can't say for sure. The murderous Kanhaiya is a shadow of his former self. We now have Pamela Bhutoria as Deepal, Kanhaiya's daughter, who is full of attitude, but what exactly is her purpose and role? We see a random sex scene of the Sahib with a lover, played by Rishina Kandhari. But who was she, and where the hell did she appear from? There is talk of guests in the palace-turned-hotel should not be disturbed. At the climax scene, there is a massacre with loud gun shots. Not a single guest appears.

All these plot-holes, bloopers, not-so-good looking people masquerading in Rajasthan left a sour taste in my mouth. I expected a story line. I got a masquerade. But it was entertainment, no doubt. If one leaves continuity and logic behind.

Starts off well enough, and then the meandering commences, without purpose. A woman leaves her hubby and sets up an independent establishment. She also has a platonic relationship with a young colleague. The boorish husband gets killed by the platonic friend, and the lady in question comes back to her original household (what happened to the newly furnished apartment?). In the meantime, the boorish husband starts making supernatural appearances in the oddest of places; the woman has a mental breakdown and tries to commit suicide.

Side by side, we see a lot of screen time given to a frail old man, a sort of family retainer. It is obvious that the dude will have some significant role during the course of events. Sadly, his character stops appearing at the end; he had no role at all, other than to prolong the film with his antics.

The leading lady, with a bit of a puffy visage is suitably cast; the boorish husband dominates the proceedings as usual. The platonic friend turns out to be a nasty dude. Some attempts at faking supernatural appearances fall flat. For example the lady sees her dead hubby in the backseat of her car, and subsequently vanish. The spooking was being faked all along, so how the hell did he enter the car, and how the hell did he vanish? The husband's dead body is found later by the police, with a stab wound. But since the murder was being faked all along, whose body was that? Such bloopers abound.

A boring film, plodding along without direction. Better to give a miss.