Dhoom 2 – It’s ‘like’ exciting but not exhilarating!

Cast: Hrithik Roshan, Abhishek Bachchan, Aishwarya Rai, Uday Chopra, Bipasha Basu,
Rimi Sen


Directed by: Sanjay Gadhvi
Produced by: Aditya Chopra

Primary Audience: Young and old
Genre: Thriller
Movie Overall Rating: *** (3 star out of 5)


“Dhoom 2: Back in Action” is an exciting and entertaining sequel to Dhoom, with handsome studs with biceps, bikini babes, beautiful locales, high- flying stunts, hi-tech robberies, masterful disguises, little romance and comedy, great dance moves, but inferior songs, and finally an unrealistic plot!

This thriller is about daring heists and almost impossible thefts of rare artifacts, crown jewels, diamonds, unique coinage, carried out from Namibia to Mumbai and Rajasthan to Rio de Janeiro, by the international criminal, Mr. A, and the subsequent police chase to nab this criminal by Mumbai police ACP’s Jai Dixit, Shonali Bose and sub-inspector Ali. I guess it’s irrelevant that Mumbai police seems to have an international jurisdiction!

The movie also has the romance between the police pawn, the sexy criminal Sunheri with the brainy brawny mastermind criminal Mr. A. It has an elongated game of Russian roulette with the gun and one bullet between Ash and Hrithik and of course, not to forget the infamous kiss between them!

The movie portrays a lot of style, sophistication, good editing, but also steals from many action or crime thriller movies like Mission Impossible, Entrapment, After the Sunset & …… The first Dhoom was ‘inspired’ by Fast and Furious 1 and 2 and Ocean’s 11 which were very obvious, at least this time they made it less obvious by getting material from many sources. So, we can say it is an art to copy and put together in a different setting, and here the movie scores good points for a job done well.

Hrithik Roshan as smart, cool, athletic, sand boarding, scuba diving, parachuting, rock climbing, bungee jumping, racing, master of disguise, technically savvy thief -Mr. A steals the show. Aishwarya with her bronze tan, skimpy clothes in size 0 and American teenage act and drawl with over used ‘like’ ( “Are you like checking me out”), hip-hop- rap hairstyles & dressing ( specially in Crazy Kiya Re) as Ms Sunheri is eye-candy to guys but otherwise didn’t come out as the sharp burglar she claims to be! Abhishek Bachchan’s role gets diminished in this sequel. Except for his neat one-liners, and sometimes macho image he doesn’t do much. He should have made little more effort to avoid getting overshadowed. Bipasha Basu in double role was of course only added to this movie to add some sexy spice which she does well. Uday Chopra is fun and funny, especially with the dream sequences with imaginary wife and kids.

The music in Dhoom 2 may have rhythm and energy but the songs are bleak and weak. Except for the title number Dhoom Again, the other songs- Crazy Kiya Re, Touch Me, My Name is Ali, Dil Laga Na etc were sorry and inferior.

Dhoom2 brings together some extremely well crafted sequences -specially the first few robberies, last was shoddy; awesome stunts- all of Hrithik’s and Abhisheks; amazing disguises (statue was spectacular); excellent use of technology (in robberies and chase); breathtaking locales with exotic settings (first Hindi movie in Rio!) But alas! Content of story is shallow. A lot of whys, ifs and buts are sparked while watching the movie. Bollywood movies are getting better and better, perfection is not yet reached.