Wednesday, June 20, 2018

Race 3 - The Salman Khan Spectacular

By Hamza Shafique (Instagram / Facebook)


Race 3 works, and I don’t know how. Screenplay doesn’t make sense, acting apart from Anil Kapoor is mediocre, Songs are forgetful, action for most part feels repetitive and still Race 3 works. I wasn’t bored in fact I enjoyed my time and I have no clue what worked for me. I believe it’s just Salman Khan.



Salman Khan is one star who keeps on bringing new trends and re-inventing himself as per his fan following at the right time and can continue to use same formula for success over and over again. He started off as a romantic hero but when he noticed his charm is fading he brought in the shirt less trend with the iconic “Oh O Janejana”, then after that we got strings of films (Kahin Pyar na Ho jay, Her Dil Jo Pyar karay ga etc) with as much skin show possible. When that started to fade he brought in the element of Humor with shared screen space with another star and then we got hits like Mujhse Shaadi Karogi, Maine Pyar Kyon Kya, Partner etc.


When it was time to re-invent himself again he chose stylized action with slight doze of comedy and then we got films like Wanted, Dabangg and Ek Tha Tiger which kept his stardom in place. It’s not like he never did any other genre movies during these times but the movies that kept him on top always followed a certain hit pattern. Natural choice for an actor who has tried all and is in older phase of his career is content oriented films and Salman rocked there as well. We got classics like Sultan and Bajrangi Bhaijan but this phase didn’t last long and with failure of Tubelight Salman Khan realized this genre requires a lot of work and hence we got Tiger Zinda Hai and Race3 which are no brainer, logic defying multi starrer action flicks. And I believe Salman will stick to this genre for a while now.


Just like this review this film is dominated by Salman Khan and he hides all flaws. I never liked Remo Dsouza’s direction. A similar film Dishoom which was also shot in AbuDhabi with same issues and masala never worked for me, in fact I was super annoyed throughout. But despite all negative reviews and issues, this film works for me. I attribute this to the ways Salman Khan put together his team and content. Screenplay was mediocre, but pacing was perfect and had all the masala elements. For example, who doesn’t like women in action on screen and regardless of screenplay requirement we get Daisy Shah and Jaqueline Fernandes going face to face with amazing acrobatic action in a disco on some super beats. I was so entertained by the action that I really didn’t care whether screenplay demanded it or not. Same goes for Anil Kapoor, his opening sequence to his end scene, all had so much charisma that I didn’t care how predictable the plot was. 


This movie has a lot of issues from screenplay to acting, from lame lyrics to uninventive beats and initially I wanted to do my usual review where I delve into my world of perfect film making but then I decided to review it as a Salman Khan fan. He is a mass hero and masses come to see their hero juggling with stuff that they don’t have in real life like huge mansions, expensive cars, larger than life action with bigger guns and perfect good-looking beings. Just keeping in mind, the excitement of my 11 year old nephew to see Bugatti on screen, I go with 3 stars. This film has already done 200 Crores so I am 100% sure that I am not alone.

1 comment:

  1. I still need to watch it, story doesn’t seem all that!!

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