Dhoom 2 - Review

Dhoom 2 boasts of a rich lineage. A predecessor in the form of Dhoom 1 which was very stylish and successful, a producer like Yashraj Films and Hrithik Roshan and Aishwarya Rai to boost its image at the box office. It sure has all the ingredients to be dished out as an out and out commercial potboiler. The biggest question that one would ask is - Does it live upto the expectations raised? The answer according to me is - Almost!

If you think that this Dhoom is all style and dare-devilry you are wrong. It has oodles of emotional quotient as well. The second half is not really a cop-thief chase saga but a love story.

As always let me list out the positives and the negatives of the film and then let you make the choice.

Positives:

Hrithik Roshan and Aishwarya Rai: Hrithik Roshan towers over everyone else in the film. For the first 40 minutes of the film, he doesn't even have a single dialogue to his credit but even then its him all the way.
Thankfully he doesn't over act and carries the film forward almost single handedly.

Aishwarya Rai looks sexy throughout. She undergoes a complete transformation for this role. Her pairing with Hrithik looks good on screen.

Picturisation: Stylishly shot globally. Yes, you have scenes shot in Nigeria, Rio, India and Fiji. The opening scene is deftly handled. All the songs are shot beautifully. You can expect that with so many glamorous faces and sun tanned babes frolicking around on Copacabana beach, or rather Cocabanana as Uday Chopra calls it!

Good Production Value: The effort shows in every frame of the film. The producers have spent lavishly to package it as a complete entertainer and promoted it well too. Yashraj without doubt is India's best
production house.

Negatives:

Script: A feeling of rendezvous - There are more than a few occasions when you are reminded of Dhoom 1 which to an extent is okay but the scene where Abhishek and Hrithik sit and talk reminds of a similar scene from the earlier version where Abhishek and John talk. Also, its difficult to digest that the world's best thief falls for a stupid ploy by the Mumbai Police.

Music: Not as great as the first one. I don't know if I am biased but I have sort of begun to dislike Pritam's music now after getting to know that he copies almost all songs from somewhere or the other. Yes, I heard the original version of at least 15-20 of his most popular 'copied' songs.

Characterization and direction goof ups: I really couldn't find out what Bipasha was doing in the film. For the first 1 hour or so she is shown as the Indian Lara Croft and then for the rest of the film, her dumb twin sister from Brazil takes over. She is then given just one song and one bikini moment and then sidelined from the whole plot. Maybe it was done to allow Uday Chopra to get some screen space.

The way the diamond is robbed from the Museum looks too kiddish. How can one digest that a remote controlled robot comes and picks up the diamond and none of the security guards standing around see it.

Since this review comes quite late, all of you must already be aware of the box-office collections of this film. It has become a top grosser for 2006. So, as Aishwarya kisses Hrithik and Abhishek Bachchan and family simmer within(I think the whole story was just a publicity stunt!), Dhoom 2 sizzles!