Review of "Dhoom 3"

From the day, when the surprising news has came that Aamir perfectionist Khan has been casted as the new villain for Dhoom 3, everyone is waiting with a high expectation to see what will be the impact of Aaamir’s entry to this successful franchise which is always popular for more than its style and look than the story and logic. Yes the new addition to the third instalment is an emotional background; unlike the other two Dhoom movies this time the thief has a solid emotional reason to do the robberies.

The Dhoom movies are never made for the audiences who like to find logic in the story, this time also there is no exception. This is a story of a magician Shahir Khan (Aamir Khan), who

robs the branches of a particular bank in Chicago as his father had committed suicide for the pressure of the loan that he had taken from the bank. Inspector Jai Dixit (Abhishek Bachchan) and Ali Akbar (Uday Chopra) are called from Mumbai to solve this case just because the thief lefts messages in Hindi at the crime scene after every robbery (don’t try to find any logic here). Then begins the usual chase between the thief and cop in true Dhoom style where the inspector knows who the thief is but he only wants to catch him red handed. The chase sequences are better this time and the bikes are also more advanced but some of the main attraction of Dhoom franchise are missing here like the supercool attitude of the villain, the mastermind plans (copied from Hollywood movies) to execute the robberies. Without these qualities it does not look like a part of the Dhoom series rather it looks like a movie which is inspired from earlier Dhoom movies only.

In the first half though it looks like a Dhoom movie but in the second half for around one hour the thief and cop story takes a backseat and it becomes an emotional story which tries to showcase only Aamir Khan. Yes there are twists and turns in the story and some of them are interesting. The best among them is of course the closely guarded secret which is revealed just before the interval point. But if you have seen the Hollywood movie “The Prestige” then it won’t appear as surprising to you also it will be easier for you to predict the story after that point. The problem with the screenplay is that this shocking twist has been used to create more emotional drama rather than to add more thrill to the story.

The screenplay is engaging but in parts and the lack of romance and comedy is also a weak point for it. Another negative point for Vijay Krishna Acharya as a screenplay writer is that he was so engaged to showcase the character played by Aamir Khan that he forgets to give enough scope to the other characters and this way the movie has became a one man show only. Which may look exciting to Aamir fans but Dhoom series fans will not feel the same. As a director Vijay Krishna Acharya is better than his last outing “Tashan” but he cannot meet the expectations set up by the director of last two Dhoom movies Sanjay Gadhvi. The dialogues written by the director himself is just okay only the funny lines written for Ali’s character are interesting.

Aamir Khan is saying on every interview that this is the toughest role of his 25 years career. With due respect to his personal opinion, this is not the best of his acting career. He had a good scope to show his skills especially in the second half but unfortunately it feels bad to see that he is giving an extra effort to make his emotions believable. Such an over acting is unexpected from you Aamir, this is not a bad performance but we expect more from you.

Abhishek Bachchan has nothing much to do. The length and importance of his character of the cop is getting reduced with every Dhoom movie with more importance going to the thief’s character. Abhishek looked fit in comparison to Dhoom 2, but he needs to think seriously to change his hair stylist as he has been given two disastrous disguise looks in the second half.

Uday Chopra has again proved that no one can do a better act as Ali, than him. He has the best comic lines and he delivers them superbly. Wish he would have been given more screen time and more dialogues.

Here one thing needs to be mentioned that in last ten years not much development has been done to the characters of Jai and Ali. Now we know these two characters very well and we would like to discover the newer sides of these characters, so the writers in Yashraj camp please think on this before you plan the next Dhoom.

There is Katrina Kaif too who is playing the character of Aliya the leading performer in the circus run by Shahir. She is also the love interest of the character played by Aamir Khan. Katrina has only two scenes and four songs to her credit and she managed to look gorgeous in that small part. She has shown her dancing skills brilliantly in all the songs. It is tough to take your eyes off from her when she is dancing on the screen. She is truly described in the movie as “Asian goddess who can dance and sing liquid electricity”.

Apart from the leading cast the other actor who deserves special mention is the child artist Siddharth Nigam. He has given a heart warming performance as the younger Aamir Khan.

The music by Pritam Chakraborty is not so popular till now comparing to the other Dhoom movies, but still the songs “Malang” and “Kamli” are good and have the potential to be a hit with the movies success. The background music by Julius Packiam is brilliant and it has been used perfectly in the movie especially in the chase sequences.

The technical team has given enough support to the director. The cinematography by Sudeep Chatterjee is superb. The way he has shot the chase sequences in the streets of Chicago is breathtaking. Editing by Ritesh Soni is crisp in the first half but he loses his grip a bit in the second half. The romantic song featuring Aamir and Katrina in the second half could have been easily edited out. Choreographer Vaibhabi Merchant has utilised the budget provided for the song picturization and make the songs a visual treat. The dance moves in the songs

“Dhoom Machale”, “Malang” and “Kamli” is awesome and the areal acts are very much new for any Bollywood movie. Same thing cannot be said for the Tap dance featuring Aamir Khan in the title credits. The hard work done by both Aamir and the choreographer Dien Perry is showing but one month time is not enough to learn this Tap dance for Aamir especially when the background dancers are perfect in this particular dance form. Instead of that a simple Bollywood dance would have been a better alternate. The action sequences are always a highlight of dhoom movies and this time also it has been designed brilliantly by Conard Palmisano and Sham kaushal, but the fight sequence in the introduction scene of jai and Ali is a letdown considering the standard of Dhoom franchise.

There is no doubt that Dhoom 3 will surely create history at the box office and entertain the masala movie lovers but it will disappoint the diehard fans of Dhoom series.