October 3-Bang Bang is an action thriller, with a love story woven in, directed by Siddharth Anand. Most wanted gangster, Omar Zafar (Danny Denzongpa), escapes MI 6 in London by killing an Indian army Colonel. Then he plots to steal the Kohinoor from the Tower of London as a tool of exchange for his freedom.
Hang on, I thought he was already free and I’m not sure whom he is planning to bargain with, on what grounds and for what? But we’re not getting bogged down by details, this is Bang Bang. Besides, just then enters the stunning, agile, gravity defying jewel thief in the form of bronze and streaked Rajveer Nanda (Hrithik).
For rest of the film the supposed good guys from the various secret agencies as well as the bad boys, the goons of Omar Zafar, chase Rajveer for the gem. Meanwhile, in a cosy corner of Shimla, lonely bank receptionist Harleen Sahni (Katrina), decides to finally go on a blind date, ends up mistakenly with Rajveer and then is chased around along with him by all concerned on the pretext of being taken to a “mehfooz” (safe) place.
Harleen trusts Rajveer, then doesn’t, then does, then isn’t so sure but is in love and lust with him and then decides to betray him only to save him. Got it? Well doesn’t matter either way because I don’t really think you are supposed to, this is Bang Bang.It is an official remake of Knight and Day, although the original is a crisp 1 hour 47 mins, the masala version is 2 hours 35 endless minutes long but we are not splitting hairs over it.
There is an underlying happiness and joy in the action sequences that make you forget all else, temporarily. None of the actors take themselves too seriously while doing life defying stunts, they just seem to be having the time of their life and this makes you join in the fun. Especially the fly board water chase sequence – I totally wanted to be swimming, splashing and flying away with Kitty-Kat and Duggu dodging some random bad guys.
Can these moments of escape be enough to string together a watchable film? May be, just may be, if it had been an hour shorter like the original, the script would have been forced to make sense. The good thing is it doesn’t matter for the film makers if anyone gets it or even goes to see it because no doubt they have already made all their money with blatant and multiple product placements in every frame.
The film opens with Omar Zafar extolling the virtues of thin crust and extra cheese pizza eating out of a Pizza Hut box, then there are entire scenes set in Pizza Hut talking about the variety of Pizzas available in less than 30 minutes. They’ve got Mountain Dew posters on trams in Prague and Rajveer very seriously saying “Dar ke aage Jeet hai” and that he works for Odomos.
There are fight sequences in a market where all you remember in Johnson Tiles.
-INDIA TODAY
