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21 March 2008
Race - A Gripping Thriller??????
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The official website of Abbas-Mustan's Race calls it a "gripping, multi-star thriller". Now that I have watched the film I'm wondering if I watched the same film. Multi-star, yes. But a gripping thriller? Either I don't understand what a thriller is, or Burmawala brothers have a strange sense of humour. I decided to turn to wikipedia to check how Race stands against the definition of this genre called thriller. So here goes my checklist:
"Thrillers often take place wholly or partly in exotic settings such as foreign cities, deserts, polar regions, or high seas" – Check. Durban, South Africa certainly qualifies as an exotic foreign city.
"The heroes in most thrillers are frequently "hard men" accustomed to danger" Bravo! Abbas-Mustan must have read this while working with their scriptwriters. The only attempt at character development in Race was to establish that the 'hero' lives on the edge, with a passion for dangerous sports. Well done. Another check.
"In a thriller, the hero must thwart the plans of an enemy, rather than uncover a crime that has already happened" - Check. Race adheres to this as well.
"Jeopardy and violent confrontations are standard plot elements" - Check.
"A thriller climaxes when the hero finally defeats the villain" - Again, check.
I'm sorry, but it seems that I was wrong and Race is indeed a "thriller".
But hang on. Here's the clincher. Wikipedia winds up the characteristics of a thriller with these lines:
"Thrillers may be defined by the primary mood that they exhibit: excitement. In short, if it 'thrills', it is a thriller"
Yesss!
I'm disputing the categorization of Race as a thriller only because it failed to excite me, or provide any thrills. I found the first 30 minutes of the film absolutely boring with the plot getting nowhere! The device of a narrator establishing the characters just doesn't work here. I'm not sure if it would work in any thriller. And even when the plot thickens a bit, I wasn't 'thrilled'. Call me old school or whatever, but I believe in the good old written word. Style cannot be a subsitute for content in my book. Thousands of slo-mos, jump cuts, cars blasting and flying left right and center - all this emphasized by a thumping background score - cannot induce excitement into material that's just not written to be exciting. The basic premise of the plot - the primary motive that drives the characters to do what they do – is as clichéd as can be. And what does one say about the walk-towards-the-camera-in-slow-motion introduction of lead characters that has already been beaten to death of late?
Then you have the innumerable plot-twists. Plot-twists work well in a thriller if they are judiciously used to shock the audience, but when the philosophy of more-the-better comes into play it can be seriously counterproductive. In Race, the twists are so frequent (and so predictable and lame) that after a while I just didn't care what 'shock' came in next, nor was I interested in knowing how the film would end.
Now for the saving grace. Just one: this one is more 'thrilling' than the director-duo's last hit, 36 China Town. Now that isn’t saying much, is it?
21:13 Posted in Film | Permalink | Comments (10) | Email this
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Comments
Thanks for warning us!
This one was low on expectations but A-M do have the knack of stuffing in a few entertaining bits in any bad film. I still think their best was Baadshah - a self-spoofing madcap take on the potboiler thriller genre. Then there was baazigar, main khiladi tu anari(was it A-M?), khiladi...
Then there is the good memories of Rajiv Rai that keep me away from all the ajnabees and china towns. Though China Town was also enjoyable in bits, then came naqaab and now this, the graph seems to be downwards through and through...
Posted by: tushar | 21 March 2008
what crap r u talking abt ....??the film RACE was superb....i went in for the first day first show and the whole audience was cheering for the film....and if u didn't get the word 'funny'...anil-sameera-jhonny were meant to be funny......even the leads in the film do witty lines that make u smile.....if smiling in a thriller(which it definitely is) is so injurious to ur health...i think JERKs like u need some mental help...big time!!!......so before u mislead other people to not have a good time....please follow my advice-u can thank me later buddy...sorry -jerk!!!
Posted by: pinky | 22 March 2008
pinky, thanks for your suggestion. I'll immediately take an appointment with a shrink. But hang on, i haven't even talked about the film being 'funny' or 'unfunny' in this post.
Posted by: Aditya | 22 March 2008
I think 'pinky' is an Abbas-Mustan device. :-)
Posted by: tushar | 22 March 2008
Excellent, I knew this would be a shit film and I was right. So bored of same old stuff, hot chick with miniscule amount of clothes and muscled up blokes and that's about it.
What a waste of time, it's my fault I suppose, nobody told me to go watch it...I was in a suicidal mood and that's why I went ... serves me right!
Posted by: sr | 22 March 2008
Its an another copy-paste job by the brothers.The whole plot of the movie is lifted from some B-grade hollywood flick which I saw long time ago on Star movies
Posted by: raj | 22 March 2008
Couldn't agree more. It's an over-accessorized dud.
Posted by: Beth | 23 March 2008
Came across this on Baradwaj rangan's blog.. It was a good read,and yep,you are right,it didn't thrill me anywhere.
P.S:I found the songs to be MAJOR speedbreakers and just added to the length of the film.
Really,the last "thriller" that thrilled me was johnny gaddar.
Posted by: Pradyumna | 26 March 2008
Aditya, I liked where you went with this whole "thriller checklist" thing - It made what would otherwise have been a boring summary of an even more boring movie a delightful read.
Posted by: Sagarika | 02 April 2008
I only came to check if what i am thinking about the movie coincides with you. lol and it does .. i loved munching the pop corns than the thrill in the movie .. one significant pitfall in the movie is that they are revealing everything as it is happening ..
for e.g. - the screen where bipasha tells saif about what akshay khanna is plotting against him. now if that scean would not have been there it would have been like bips and akshay together for a longer duration of time. similarly ... the akshay katrina scene was too early .. it could have been something like bips reading the letter of approval and then katrina coming out of the bank with all the money and meeting akshay ... i can go on and on in this .. not sure if it wud have been good with all these minor changes but still .. i feel so ..
Posted by: Taroona | 09 April 2008
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