It can be called the game of destiny or the Karmic circle that some people get all the resources, the backing and ready setup to make a huge movie and from the inside they are not the masters of the medium. On the other hand there are immensely talented people (directors and writers) who have all the potential of delivering a Hit but they never get a chance of proving themselves. Here destiny plays more important role than talent, I suppose. Why I felt this way after watching DRONA ? Here is the answer
If we take into consideration the budget of DRONA and instead of making "Drona", we spend that money on 10 different small budget films giving break to new talents, then I am sure all the 10 films will come up with something interesting. A few may be exceptions, but they all will be able to recover the cost and may also generate profits by selling all kind of theatrical, satellite and digital rights.
But spending such amount of money on a dull, uninteresting and poorly executed project like "Drona" is out of my understanding. In fact in my opinion if any intelligent businessman would have seen the rushes of this movie half way, then he would have decided to shelve the project right there. I am a loyal Bachhan fan, but I feel sad to say that this is the most deadly or the worst choice of project from Abhishek Bachhan. May be he relied too much on his childhood friend Goldie Behl, the director of the movie, who could not deliver the goods for himself and his friend.
Drona simply fails to generate any kind of interest right from the start. You can feel the restlessness, the giggles and the noises in the theater just after 15 minutes of the movie. There is no definite plot and it keeps on dragging with costly and well executed digital effects. Interestingly all the special effects seem to be inspired from the "Mummy" series movies. The sand storm, the faces in the sands all look familiar. Abhishek tries to give an intense performance but doesn't have a well written role for him. Both the writer and director seem to be confused in what to make, a fantasy movie, a super hero movie or a super girl movie.
The annoying fact is that Priyanka Chopra looks more convincing and gorgeous in her super girl get-up than Abhishek as Drona. May be the film would have been far different and better if it was made around Priyanka as a super women. Jaya Bachhan has nothing to do in few scenes she has got, but as always she looks elegant. A complete mis-cast is K.K. in the role of evil villain. He tries to be funny and cruel at the same time but fails to impress. For the first time I felt K.K. was not doing his part with full spirits.
The script has not got any mention of a special time period. It keeps on shifting to different time spans with sudden jumps ignoring any continuity. However I made a keen notice for the work of Art Director. The fantasy sets and the mysterious city set in the second half was so childish, in bright colours like newly painted and was clearly visible that they were made out of cardboards and stationary materials. The sets were not impressive at all as compared to the special effects. Musically, nothing to mention as all songs were uninspiring and unwanted as per the script and demand of the subject. In the first half the songs disturb rather than entertain.
Only a night before, I heard the people from the Industry praising the movie at its premier in Mumbai. Now after watching it, I can only come to a conclusion that Abhishek has not got good, sincere and true friends around him. If there had been a true friend then he would have told Abhishek straight, that this is your latest grand mistake of making a wrong choice and please don't rely on it. Forget it as soon as possible. And I can bet that Amitabh, Jaya and Aishwarya, all being intelligent & experienced film personalities, knew at the back of their minds that this is not gonna work.
Last Words : The only worth watching thing in Drona is, the fight sequences by gorgeous Priyanka Chopra in a well suited get up.
