Agent Vinod

I mean, seriously, HOW could SO many people downright LOATHE this film? Yes, it's a departure from director Sriram Raghavan's past work. Yes, Kareena's character Iram is (the only character) badly written. Yes, Vinod may rely too much on luck at times, but that's the thing, isn't it?

It's a MOVIE, a DREAM of the director, where ANYTHING can happen. And, to that respect, Agent Vinod is actually logical, and makes sense, something rare in Indian action flicks, since most are just rip-offs of South Indian actioners, with a single hero sending 20-30 baddies flying with one, hand movement, or whatever it is.

The action is frantically energetic, but still controlled and realistic. Agent Vinod has many great gunfights, and feels a lot like an action- espionage video game more than a film. Which isn't bad.

Nonetheless, Agent Vinod has great characters, and a nice plot, within all that action. Saif Ali Khan is sharp as RAW agent Vinod, and the supporting cast just add even more to the entire film by their performances as the numerous villains of Agent Vinod. Ram Kapoor and Adil Hussain, especially, are great.

There are only a few problems I had with Agent Vinod. The underwritten and unnecessary female part of Kareena, leading to lack of the Saif- Kareena chemistry (which seemed to be the only thing that the dumb people watching this film cared about), and the songs are mediocre, I guess. Otherwise, you've got a pretty bombastic, explosive, yet smart espionage thriller that SHOULD have been the flagship Indian secret agent bonanza at the box office, if only the consumers would have cared less for masala, and more for good cinema, that's wholly entertaining as well as smart.

Stylish actors,wonderful locations,lots of side characters,wayward storyline all these sum up the context of Agent Vinod.Mark,I used only two positive things,which are actually the fairly good things in the movie,whereas the reason you should avoid it,is at the behest of the negative points.The movie seems as if cut-by-cut summary of 14 different movies(because of 14 different locations) with none of them providing apt understanding of the storyline and you end up asking yourself-"What was that?","Who was that?","Why was that?". Saif Ali Khan and Kareena Kapoor did justice to their character still the storyline & some poor editing made a mess of the movie.Songs were good still not upto the mark. All in all Agent Vinod is a stylish,sleek movie beyond a good and sensible storyline.If you find STYLE dominating SUBSTANCE as good,go for it,else its far far better to avoid it.

If a movie is to be considered good, it should qualify for that as a whole. If certain (or even all) parts of the movie are good but they do not work together in tandem with consistency and harmony to provide a satisfactory experience to the spectator, the movie cannot be admired.

This is what has happened with Agent Vinod. It has great action and thrill, a very good entertaining song (in the style of Bollywood during the sixties to the eighties), admirable performances from the lead actors and finally a very good story with an impressive climax lasting for 20-25 minutes. There are many skilfully executed scenes in the movie (alongwith certain childish sequences as well). All the same, I won't consider it as a brilliant entertainer. It's just an above average movie, something that we did not expect when a talented director like Sriram Raghavan was behind the camera and a talented actor like Saif Ali Khan was in front of the camera. It's a let down from the Saif-Raghavan duo who had delivered a brilliant thriller like Ek Hasina Thi (2004) from the Ram Gopal Varma Camp.

Agent Vinod, as the name suggests, is the story of an agent of the Indian Intelligence (RAW, to be precise) who gets an assignment to dig out the circumstances in which another agent (Ravi Kishan) had lost his life. The investigative and daredevil activities of this agent, Vinod (Saif Ali Khan) brings him into contact with a pretty but daredevil (like him) girl, Ira Parveen (Kareena Kapoor). There are several baddies in the scenario, coming across whom the adventures of these two unearth the plot of a nuclear explosion. Finally, the hero succeeds not only in preventing the nuclear explosion but also in reaching the real planner of these events whose wicked activities are hidden from the eyes of the world.

The narrative of Agent Vinod moves through several countries (even my counting failed) and contains several blows and counter-blows between the goodies and the baddies with countless heads rolling in the process. As per my understanding, the intelligence agents or the spies are trained in such a way that they rise above emotions and not moved by mishaps in the lives of the individuals (whether in own life or in the lives of the other ones). However our filmwaalas are yet to come out of the earlier era and the old-fashioned sentimental twists are still kept to tone down the profoundness of the story (and play with the sentiments of the Indian viewers as well).

The narrative is fast-paced, no doubt but this pace does not allow the viewer to understand the movement of the story and the meaning of different things shown on the screen in a proper way. Events running on the screen are known to the director because the film is nothing but a realization of his vision only. However my dear Mr. Sriram Raghavan, they should be understood by the audience too whom the movie is ultimately meant for. And that's why when the mastermind is unmasked in the ending reel, it does not look convincing because even the most intelligent and logical viewer cannot connect him to the baddies that had already come before him in the movie (and cannot make out the connection of the baddies among themselves also). Should we believe that a sovereign country like Pakistan and its intelligence wing, ISI work for an individual who has his own axe to grind through their operations ? Too far-fetched. Putting it straight, the many good parts of the movie do not act together to make the movie impressive and entertaining as a whole.

The movie boasts of a huge production value and the different locales of the many countries involved have been portrayed beautifully on the screen. Technical aspects are superb except the editing part. The movie is just too long and that's why starts boring the viewer. It should have been short by at least 15-20 minutes. Action sequences and thrills (especially in the final reels) are the essence of the movie. The final phase of the movie (final 20-25 minutes) is the most interesting and gripping part of it.

As far as the music composed by Preetam is concerned, it's according to the mood of the movie. I won't term it as excellent. Only the Mujra song picturized in the old fashioned way is impressive in listening to as well as watching on the screen. And quite interestingly, Maryam Zakaaria looks better than Kareena Kapoor in that song.

Performances are praiseworthy. Saif Ali Khan is a very good actor who has groomed himself to such an extent that he can fit the bill for any role. He is the heart and soul of the movie and the movie deserves a watch for his fans. Kareena Kapoor has also done well alongwith her pretty looks though her character confuses at many places. She dies in the end because our filmmakers are still not gutsy enough to show an Indian Hindu male marrying a Pakistani Muslim girl. The supporting cast is routine.

My final words - Agent Vinod is strictly a one time watch and that too for the action-loving audience. It's a collection of some good parts which do not sum up to a coherent whole. Frankly speaking, this movie, in its major part, is just like a jigsaw puzzle which instead of entertaining the viewer, leaves him mentally exhausted in trying to join its pieces together in the correct way.

If movie-making were to be likened to cookery, how do you best describe the recipe for 'Agent Vinod'? Take 2 cups of 1970's James Bond DVD ready-mix with 1 cup of Jason Bourne and mix them well and let it cook on a bollywood drama flame. Now add finely chopped Pakistan spice and heaps of terror-plot masala with item-songs to taste. Cook it till distributors are pleased. Garnish with glamor. Serves many!

Well, one might say that this is not the first time that Bollywood has drawn inspiration from the West. But the question is: What was the point in making this film? Seems like "Saifeena", err, Saif Ali Khan and Kareena Kapoor wanted another movie together! Well who knows! After all, it was the Nawab's own Illuminati Films producing it.

'Agent Vinod' packs in too much for a storyline. Predictably, it begins with an Af-Pak plot against India and a portable nuke. When his colleague (Ravi Kishan) dies after transmitting a message about a mysterious '242', Vinod (Saif) is sent in.

Over the next couple of hours, the audience gets sneak peek into international locations as Agent Vinod offers you the cheapest spectator tickets to Russia, Latvia, Morocco and Somalia, erstwhile untouched by Bollywood.

About the movie, never mind the numerous characters and plot twists. All that one can know after watching this movie is that Hindi seems to be the lingua franca of all slime balls around the world, including tiny countries in Europe. Interesting, huh!

While the main plot rolls on, there is Kareena Kapoor who plays doctor to Kazaan (Prem Chopra), one of the baddies. Soon, we learn that she is a Pakistani doctor called Iram who was wrongly implicated in an attack and presumed dead. Obviously, as in any film, Vinod & Iram get romantic and she soon joins him in his mission, which, for some strange reason requires her to perform a Mujra before high-profile baddies!

There is no need to bother about details as long as one knows that it had too many characters. After some time, one stops to care about them and what they are after. And all the while, you know what the climax is going to look like and how it would end.

Coming to the acting department, Saif may have evolved as an actor. But, barring a stunt or two, he offers nothing new. Kareena sleepwalks through her role. But, Adil Hussain stands out as the menacing Colonel. And then you have staple villains Gulshan Grover and Shahbaz Khan. And, Iranian-Swedish actress Maryam Zakaria peps up the oomph quotient. The rest is all about slick action.

Just like in James Bond, there is action, a crazed destructive plot, power mongers, one lone agent to save the world and some pretty faces. While the Bond inspiration is mostly limited to the earlier era or the golden age among 007 flicks, there is one element from the recent flicks, with a reference to a villainous conglomerate 'Zeus Group' not unlike Bond's 'Quantum'. And, no cool gadgetry from Q-department.

What spoils the show for 'Agent Vinod' is that the plot is way too confused. It is as if someone independently shot different segments in varied locations and sat down at the editing table to put them together. A tighter script could have surely helped.

True, 'Agent Vinod' has its flaws and the lead character is no James Bond. But still, it is not a movie you would regret watching. For one, benchmarking this with James Bond or Jason Bourne doesn't make sense these days. After all, Bond has lost the panache and Bourne feels the same, no matter which part of the series you are watching.

So, if you are a huge fan of Kareena or Saif or have nothing to do to kill time, 'Agent Vinod' is not bad for a pastime flick. Just don't expect too much from it!

AGENT VINOD is a film which has a 15 minutes introduction scene of Saif in the beginning. The film could have been easily brought to 20-25 minutes shorter as the story doesn't have much in it. It's a film that has been made on such a huge canvas that pulls the bar of expectations but what we get on screen is far behind of the hype that the film has generated. The director takes the film over the top because in each of his sequence, one can notice that the film is trying to be clever, but it's actually not! The writers are to be blamed for the half-baked role written for Kareena Kapoor. Her character more so becomes a caricature, thanks to filmy dialogues and poor direction. Also, the screenplay writers fail to maintain rhythm of the film because every scene is followed by some random action and chase scene. Pritam's music is just OK but it's not original. The cinematographer doesn't give any such views which will please the eyes. Sriram Raghavan fails to execute the film because his aesthetics and nuances, this film clearly lacks. It's a lazy attempt and hence it should have been handled well by the director. Saif Ali Khan is fantastic as he delivers most to perfection. He infuses life in the film. Kareena Kapoor is saddled by badly sketched role. It's just a fail..... an epic fail....