It’s finally here, RACE 3 – the third installment of a blockbuster franchise, boosted by the superstardom of Salman Khan coming on Eid. Will Salman Khan please his fans this Eid and redeem the last year Eid disappointment caused due to that blinking TUBELIGHT?, let’s find out.
The Burmawalla brothers – Abbas-Mustan who helmed the previous two hit series are out and make way for choreographer turned director Remo D’Souza to helm this one. Like the previous installments RACE 3 is also about intra-family rivalries and greed.
Sikander urf Sikku (Salman Khan), the nephew of arms dealer Shamsher (Anil Kapoor), Sikander’s step brother Suraj ((Saqib Saleem) and step sister Sanjana (Daisy Shah) don’t appreciate Shamsher’s fondness over Sikku. Shamsher’s loyal (Sharat Saxena) and his son Yash (Bobby Deol) carry forward their loyalty. An arch rival Rana (Freddy Daruwala) is hungry to eliminate Shamsher and is a constant threat. Things take a vicious turn when stepson Sikandar gets 50% of Shamsher’s property while real son and daughter are forced to share the remaining 50%. There is a parallel plot of Shamsher’s idea of homecoming where a hard disk containing the dirty sexual shenanigans of politicians has to be obtained from Cambodia. Meanwhile there is a hot pole dancer Jessica (Jacqueline Fernandez), who has her own agenda.
The writers Shiraz Ahmed (story, screenplay and dialogues) and Kiran Kotrial (dialogue) add nothing, absolutely nothing fresh, new or exciting to the franchise that the Abbas-Mustan duo did successfully by maintaining engaging twist and turns.
The writer and the director Remo D’Souza seem to be in a hurry and complete the movie in a deadline. The successful franchise was on the twist and turns in an intra-family struggle for power and money. So, family rivalry – check. Twist – check (no matter how unconvincingly they come with no rhyme and reason). Action – check (make sure it comes after an action scene or a song). Songs of course – check (they have to come, just place it ‘selfish’ly). Salmanisims – check (entry and climax in between let’s have a race on who loses the race – audience patience/tolerance or movies running time).
Remo D’souza sinks this hit franchise in its third installment into a juvenile pit of cliché song/dance/action video with slow motion effects and entanglements that are hard to digest. In one scene Bobby Deol says, “Itne saare jhatke (so much twists), when is this going to end man! Echoing the sentiments of the audience with a chorus. The reply by Salman Khan to this ‘jhatka’ is mind blowing, here it goes, “ Jhatka insaan ki zindagi mein laga rehta hai, paida hote samay or jaane ke baad bhi” (rough meaning– bolt/twist are unstoppable in a person’s life). This may have instigated someone to grab one of the guns from that arms dealer den and shoot the screen to end this pointless race.
The third addition fails miserably to connect with the earlier ones and it’s like a cosmetic surgery to the basic format of RACE, RACE 3 is so convoluted in its obsession to be super twisty that it feels like the song (aao twist kare) might be playing in Remo’s mind while directing this one.
Much to the horror, RACE 3 sees super star Salman Khan carrying that poker face most of the times in the movie, only when the brawny moments with Bobby Deol arrives during the end, we see some change in expressions.
Rest of the cast is plain average. Its only Anil Kapoor that shines in this race. The girls Daisy and Jacqueline Fernandez get a chance to play the Indian Lara Croft and it’s funny.
Second most disappointing thing is the neglect of music. RACE had hummable numbers and the music here is forgettable. Production values are rich.
Further you are astonished by the fact that Thomas Struthers (BLACK PANTHER, DUNKIRK) is involved in some of the action scenes and they have nothing to shout about.
It is unfortunate to find that RACE 3 is the weakest addition to the franchise, Remo D’Souza’s weakest movie and Salman Khan’s most poorly designed Eid Bonanaza in recent times. RACE 3 unintentionally had made the Abbas-Mustan directed RACE franchise a classic. Allah Duhai Hai, Na Dil Mein Aayi Na Dimaag Mein
