Dishoom Movie Review

By Pooja Shetty

When a movie is named “Dishoom”, you just know you can’t take it seriously and this movie lives up to its name! This movie is one part patriotic, two parts action, about half a part of special appearances by stars( like Akshay Kumar and his man-bun, some former cricket stars like Mohinder Amarnath and Rameez Raja and not to miss out on Parineeti Chopra flaunting her newly acquired waistline) and 1 part of the movie seems to be Rohit Dhawan’s tribute to Ali Baba aur chalees chor! So much so that he couldn’t stop himself from including some underground caves with a secret harem and fist fights in the middle of what I presume to be Sharjah!

The premise of the movie is about a popular cricketer getting kidnapped just before a major final against who else but our janam janam ka dushman desh Pakistan. A Sushma Swaraj  look alike decides to step in and send in her most competent macho man to solve the mystery (sans the tweets). This is our hunk John Abraham’s entry, as usual he is in top shape, perpetually angry and loves his muscle fit v-necks and is yet again named Kabir .  He is helped by a novice cop abroad, Junaid Ansari  played by Varun Dhavan (don’t ask how and why ..this is bollywood) and a rebellious,depressed kleptomaniac  named Ishika played by Jacqueline Fernandez and the rest of the movie is their quest to find the missing cricketer.

The movie is directed by Rohit Dhawan and shot abroad in the UAE and some random sets that resemble a village in the middle of nowhere and an underground harem which serves no purpose that was literally thrown in to plug a song. The Music by Pritam is average but don’t worry you will forget about it the moment you walk out of the door. The comedy quotient in the movie is a savior. The Dhawan family certainly has got that down to a science. The action scenes are reasonably well coordinated but one small observation…during the course of the movie you will see several chase scenes on an ATV, a Speed Boat, Cars, a Chopper, on foot.. .. Rohit,  methinks you forgot to include trains, perhaps next time?

John has limited lines and his action scenes are convincing but he is mostly relegated to throwing smoldering looks at the camera.  Varun is cute and his comic timing seems to be getting better with every movie (papa’s comedy genes kicking in).  Jacqueline … well let’s just say she is pretty. Special mention to Saqib Salim who was good as Viraj but barely got any screen time.  Akshay Khanna is back as the quintessential baddy and is brilliant at that. His character Wagah could’ve been fleshed out a little more but I can’t complain, it was nice to see him after eons and I hope to see him more often. The movie, all in all is what classifies as time pass and is not be taken seriously. If you like Varun /John or have a soft corner for a total out and out masala movie you will not be disappointed and will certainly enjoy the movie and forgive the lack of a well defined story and other such minor details ;). If you are looking for something more serious or intense, I suggest you look elsewhere.