Players

Throughout their career since the early 90s, director duo Abbas-Mustan have been making inspired films taking it all from the West, with a fairly good success ratio at the box office. Quite astonishingly they sometimes have even given us better movies than the Originals like their last RACE. But sadly with PLAYERS the story is not the same unexpectedly.

Keeping it straight, when they were copying, they were good. But now when for the first time they have gone for An Official Remake of a Hit Cult Movie, they go all wrong with some hugely un-necessary moves ruining a fine exciting script.

Abbad-Mustan's PLAYERS is based on two movies, "The Italian Job" made in 1969 and its Official Remake made in 2003 with the same name. Now the first one made in 1969 is a fine British film featuring Michael Caine as the leader Charlie, who plans a Big Gold robbery and the film revolves around only one heist in all till the climax. The main highlights of the film included the massive traffic jam plan and 3 mini coopers (small cars) chase sequence towards its end. Along with that it had an open climax with a surprise.

The second Italian JOB got released in 2003 with some brilliant, well written additions in the same plot, introducing a traitor in the team with a second heist plan too executed perfectly. This updated version of the classic excelled its original with a great script, featuring two exciting robberies in just 111 minutes.

Now coming to the third Official Indian Remake of the same called PLAYERS, it fails to leave you satisfied due to its own faulty and un- required insertions. This time Abbas-Mustan go legal and take the rights of making the film in Hindi as it should be done ethically. With a big production house backing them, they make a visually stunning movie with all the glitters of gold shining in the grand foreign locations. But when it comes to script, they mess it up posing as more intelligent than the original writers of both the classics.

So, PLAYERS misses the target mainly due to its writers and directors acting over-smart and adding many unwanted elements in the film ruining its original charm and feel. I am still confused that when there is already a Hit, well written script in front of you to follow legally, then what's the need of adding the same rotten plots of love and betrayal to it un-necessarily?

Honestly speaking, if you haven't seen the exciting 2003 version of THE Italian JOB, then you may like PLAYERS as a one-time watch. But in case you have already witnessed its better remake then you are sure going to find its Hindi Version strange, bizarre and absurd. In fact the same things which were so exciting, thrilling and highpoints of its Original Remake, seem to be very childish, uninteresting and weird in this Bollywood version of the Classic.

For instance, the whole first hour is wasted in just showing the selection of various players. The train robbery sequence, though well shot, is based on very unrealistic and funny assumption where every window in the train is having a virtual film running on it, controlled by our computer man. A national treasure in Russia is robbed with such a convenience and a man wears a mask of a senior officer and enters their security easily (in Russia itself). The Big Golden safe gets opened in just a few seconds by only a drilling machine and a small device. Plus the last scene in a very illogical manner tells you that all the Gold bars have actually been melted and converted into small cars made out of the same Gold. (By the way who thought of this legendary idea?)

Moreover, the massive traffic jam in the city, the road blasting sequence and the 3 mini coopers chase scenes in the climax, which were the key feature of its original, simply lose their existence in this over-intelligently made official remake. The directors do make their presence felt in certain portions, especially in the execution of the heist scenes and just before the interval but overall one doesn't feel entertained by them as compared to their last venture RACE. Musically PLAYERS is a big dud delivered by the Hit-machine Pritam, with not even one good song in its entire soundtrack. The film is shot superbly as most of the recent big ventures but I hope the makers start giving the same attention to their script department too.

Performance wise it also doesn't give you anything great to write about. Most of them in the cast remain wasted with only a few given more time on the screen showing the imbalance. Abhishek in the lead, remains the same in his style and act as he was in his other popular films such as "Dhoom". Bipasha is simply there to show off her body and nothing else. Sonam once again looks over-confident with attitude. Bobby Deol, Omi Vaidya & Sikander Kher do not contribute anything significant in the film and are simply wasted. It seems Bobby just signed this film only due to his decades long relationship with the directors. Neil Nitin Mukesh tries his best but manages to do just fine. Vinod Khanna looks tired and out of form whereas Johny Lever still manages to make you laugh in his few scenes.

As for now, I have one suggestion to make. If you are not going to see "The Italian Job" (2003 version) in any case, then you may opt for PLAYERS as a one-time watch if you wish. But if you are really interested in watching some quality cinema, then strictly watch its 2003 remake first before opting for PLAYERS. Because Abbas Mustan's PLAYERS is highly capable of ruining your exciting experience of watching the best Italian JOB (2003) till date.

Nothing much to say, but BOLLYWOOD strictly need to Learn to Imitate. Not even a single worth remake makes sense..

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This is about only those things which as a viewer I didn't like.. When the bad guys already got accepted as protagonists in Indian films, there was no need of showing the humane side of the players.. in fact the most inhumane player – Neil Nitin Mukesh impressed the most.

Yes it is true, not only recently but since 70' and 80' whenever our hero goes out for a theft, we love it. Kohinoor, Jewel Thief, Don2, Roop Ki Raani.. etc etc.. Accepted that hero always brings in some reason to steal but the trend is changing !! You can change too..

So there is the quick NOT-TO-DO check list for Abbas-Mustan's Players.

1. Remove good motives of Robbery i.e. Victor's dream project, Ronny's daughter.. make everything emotionless, professional. Though Sonam's reason to join for Victor's death was justified.

2. Take actors which can act. For star power, couple of them are OK. like rather than investing in Abhishek, Sonam, Bobby, Neil and Bipasha, pay more to 2 stars and 3 actors.. because among the 5 only Niel and Bipasha acted.

3. Bipasha's Engine work and Bobby's illusion on train windows were something too too much of science fiction to digest. Agreed that Indian audience is watching science fiction and gradually accepting such techno gigs but at the same time people have started applying logics also, the flags on the windows were clearly showing not spraying the solutions on the entire window.

4. Reduce songs and reduce the length of the movie. Sonam's gig on Bobby, Bipasha's dance for Russian general and Sonam-Abhishek drunken songs were too too too tiring and waste of time. Instead sonam and bipasha could have used smart lines to get their men. I like the talking people do the night clubs.

5. Instead of simply showing Sonam's tense face while hacking scenes, more theoretical information about how it is possible to find Spider would be better.

6. And last but not the least, you made the robbery seems pretty easy. People watch Mission Impossible franchise in India now. If not making the mission impossible, at least make it difficult.

Note: The objective of this blog is to pick only loop holes and not so great things about the movie and NOT TO review the entire movie. General ratings from different critics holds true about the movie.

I'm a movie lover, I like all kinds of films, so this isn't a fussy review only complaining about bad things.

We all know what this film is about. So here I come to the main part:- I expected a lot better from this film, but yes it didn't stand up till the expectations BUT it stood up from what bad I expected from it.

Let me tell what I found in checkpoints:-

Difference in the remake - The plot is basically the same as the Italian Job but the character backgrounds, back-story and locations are different.

Theme - This movie has many twists. Most are good but unfortunately VERY predictable. Any other movie has them. Many of the scenes were unnecessary and twists were overdone which made them bends.

Cast & Acting - The main characters are Abhishek (Charlie), Sonam (Naina), Bipasha (Ria), Neil (Spider), Sikander (Bilal), Omi (Sunny) and Bobby (Ronnie).

Starting, Abhishek has maintained the SAME style from Dhoom series which is normally fine but here its unacceptable with his cop look. Sonam, sorry to say, but she performed worst here. Her dialogs and acting just wasn't fine, even her taunting in the film was better. Sikander, I don't know, not much of a big star. The good ones were Bipasha & Neil. Bipasha's some elegant acting was like a foil to Sonam's bratty attitude. Omi was okay, he provides the comic role. Neil I would say was good but directing little destroyed it. Now surprisingly Bobby was nice, but sadly he didn't get a decent role (you'll know why). There's also Johhny Lever in a small role, he's also comedy but somehow seems by time he doesn't get good punches..

Songs - In film very bad, on TV or internet, very good. Look on internet, you'll find some decent songs like "Jhoom Ta Hoon Main" & "Dil Ye Bekaraar". But in films they MOSTLY used the less better ones. Songs are a BIG thing to hit a film, I'm surprised why didn't the directors include them.

Directing - This is what didn't fit. The director duo who're great did very wrong things in the film. They DID add nice scenes but COULD NOT present them well. The using was wrong. Some copies, many improvisations, good idea, not great presentation.

My opinion - After seeing my not so favorable comments, I surprisingly say that Players was NOT a bad film. It was okey-dokey. It was long and the first half was boring, second half picked up better but twists broke it. Some unneeded melodrama makes its little shabby, but has pace IF you haven't seen the Italian Job.

Verdict - As said, okay type. LOT of editing needed, but not terrible. 6.25 out of 10.

P.S. - 1 very important thing I want to say that this film doesn't has that much thriller supposed, but contains nothing bad. If you have any intention to watch the film you can surely go for it on discount weekdays or something. Nowadays people don't see the film and only judge by the cast even BEFORE watching a film, like a book's cover, please DON'T. If UTTERLY HORRIBLE USELESS and almost BRAINLESS films like Ready can be a super hit JUST because of Salman, then India is unfair. This is AT LEAST better than Ready, depends on your taste.

Believe me, I watched it and I know its underrated. Films like Chandni Chowk to China & Love Story 2050 are also underrated. No, they don't deserve to be hits but what was bad in them? They tried something new and they were fine for watching on TV like this movie is. :|

The positive thing is the makers have legally acquired the remake rights of "The Italian Job". Sadly the rest is all negative about "Players". For starters the magnanimous star-cast was grossly under-utilised as there is hardly any character depth. Next the screenplay has holes which are about the size of craters. Its evident that handling big canvas was more than what the director-duo could chew. And in order to tweak the plot to Indian sensibilities the 15-minutes of the original has been stretched out till the interval. Add to that the overdose of emotional and noble/ philanthropist sentiments thrown in at epic proportions give an impression that the lead characters are straight out of the mythological age. The serpentine twists of the "Race" seems to have found its way into the plot in an attempt to keep the interest of the audience alive. The lame humour hardly evokes any laughs. Songs hardly register an impact.

Jr. Bachchan seems to have reprising his character from "Game". Sonam Kapoor attempts on weighing out Katrina Kaif, but sadly she is miles to go before she can sleep. Bobby Deol's role can be termed as a blink-and-miss and certainly he will shout foul. Sikander Kher and Bipasha Basu were wasted. Niel Nitin Mukesh attempts "Johhny Gaddar" and is no match for Ed Norton (Irfan Khan or Kay Kay would have been an ideal choice). Vinod Khanna was disappointing, perhaps his character lacks the suave touch he truly deserves.

Verdict: Watch "The Italian Job" to relive the adrenaline moments.