Dhoom 3

Sahir (Aamir Khan), present owner of the Great Indian Circus, steals from branches of a Bank in Chicago that caused the suicide of his father (Jackie Shroff) in 1990. Aiming to destroy the bank, Sahir leaves a calling card each time in Hindi. So Indian cops Jai (Abhishek Bachchan) and Ali (Uday Chopra) are called in to help catch the thief. But catching Sahir is not so easy as he often vanishes at one point only to appear at another. What is his secret?

To begin with, I wonder if it’s even worth writing this review. Dhoom 3, to me, is one of the films one calls review or critic proof. No matter what one feels or writes about the film, good or bad, it’s going to rake in the money and have the producers laugh all the way to the bank. And so what if

– The film puts together bits and pieces from Tropic Thunder, and especially from Christopher Nolan’s The Dark Knight series and The Prestige. After all remember what Aamir did with Memento before?
– The makers themselves forget the basics of their franchise and build up Aamir Khan at the cost of the entire film. Not only does this destroy a reasonably OK enough first half with just enough of a plot, some thrilling (for Bollywood) action and a couple of well choreographed songs with a good twist at the interval, but that very twist proceeds to kill the second half (and the film) as it gets relatively story heavy. Now this could have been a good thing but the writing is so lazy, unimaginative, convenient, and shorn of any complexity with no twists and turns barring one in this entire half that it just leads to sheer tedium. The 172 minutes running time (too much Slo Mo?) doesn’t help.
– No other actor barring Mr Khan is even given room to breathe, not even Katrina Kaif who actually does her bit quite well in the songs. This must be easily the least she’s opened her mouth to speak in a film. And you wonder if Abhishek Bachchan was scowling (sulking?) as part of a character trait or due to the fact that he was sidelined so cruelly!
– Mr Perfectionist, Aamir, has hammed so perfectly (a fellow reviewer called him Ham ir) it must be counted amongst his worst acts ever with some of the most unintentionally funny face making. To top it all, he looks old and jaded. And with the others sidelined, Uday Chopra and his stupid comments actually bring in some comic relief to the otherwise dreary narrative. Incidentally, what was that bimbette foreign cop all about?
– For a film where you can see that money is spent like water and where one can’t really find fault with its lavish mounting, superior production design, well executed action scenes, overall decent VFX and some stunning cinematography, yet one cannot forgive some basic glitches – Aamir’s feet are not even touching the side of building as he runs down!
– The music is fine though Kamli and Malang are more redeemed by some good choreography and spectacular picturization rather than their compositions. The background score is loud and deafening and if one hears the refrain of Dhoom Macha Le… once more…
– One has not even gone into logical loopholes or typical cliches – so of course, the whites are all evil and incompetent baboons for Bollywood to come in and do its thing in Chicago.
– And of course, it has to be said…

Actually forget it. None of this really matters. The film, directed by Vijay Krishna Acharya,  is review proof as I said and so I refuse to go into a detailed, serious review or a rating. The Rupees 30 crore plus nett on the first day in India, and an estimated opening weekend of at least 3.3 million dollars in USA says it all. This is what the makers wanted. This is what they’ve got.

Hindi, Action, Thriller, Color