Elaan

At the start, it was a little slow to pick up but once all five main characters have been established, then the true action begins. A prominent business man in Mumbai is murdered, and his son puts together a team of heroes to help bring his father's killer to justice. That would be the best way to summarise it. But I will go further in the next paragraphs because I loved this film so much. Basically, the story is about NRI Karan Shah who returns home to India when he is summoned that his father has been receiving death threats due to an extortion that he (the father) refuses to cave in to. When KS reaches India, instead of adhering to his sister's pleas to send the money to the underworld lord who has been bothering them, he advices his father to stick to his guns and not cave in to the madness. In the process, the father is killed and the sister alienates herself from the brother.

The brother then takes the task upon himself to seek revenge for his father's death, in the process he meets a plucky reporter played by Amisha Patel, who instantly is smitten with him but to whom he does not return her affections. He reluctantly allows her to tang along on the journey to Switzerland which along the way he also recruits Arjun Rampal's character, a former police officer who is also a widower with a little daughter at home. Rampal's characters leads the assembling team to John Abraham's character, who is a career criminal and former henchman for Baba Sikander (the underworld lord). Currently doing time behind bars, they help him escape from prison and he leads them to Lara Dutta's character, whom he tells them is Baba's the underworld lord girlfriend. The team of five unlikely heroes is then assembled and the plot thickens as Baba leads them on a wild goose chase through Europe. The truth about Lara Dutta's character is soon revealed and the team wonder if they can ever trust Abraham again.

This film reminded me very much about Khakee but with a different spin on the idea of extraditing a criminal from point A to point B. The grail here is not so holy, in fact, the grail here is not holy at all. The character introductions were excellent, I really enjoyed the way they slowly panned that out and the way one character always led to another. One scene that really stuck out to me was the one in which the director capture's Arjun's powerful rage when he attacks Baba Sikander's underworld henchmen following the death of his wife. The action scenes in the rain (at the French border) were also awesome! especially John Abraham's umbrella stunts. Amisha Patel plays her reporter babe with decent fervour. She is feisty, this woman! :) And Lara Dutta captures sexy like you've never seen before!

But as much as I loved this film, there were a few problems that I had with it, and they are as follows:

1.] What kind of tight security allows for an assassin hiding in an elevator shaft to go undetected?

2.] The character Arjun is a former police inspector who lost both his job and wife yet he can still afford to live in a swanky hill top retreat-like home?

3.] Nurses in the ICU bring Arjun's newborn baby out into the hospital's reception where Arjun is waiting. A newborn baby? weren't they worried about the baby catching anything or being exposed and stuff? I dunno, but it didn't look right to me.

4.] If Baba Sikander was so powerful, then why didn't he order a hit on Karan Shah when he was threatened?

5.] The blatant disregard for the dead. {see John Abraham's jail breakout scene}

6.] Abhimanu (John Abraham) is given a fake name which he never bothers to use during the course of the film.

That said, how many films can you find so many problems with and yet still love it? Elaan totally rocked. Maybe it was the double-dose of eye-candy they gave use by casting John Abraham and Arjun Rampal, I dunno but whatever they did, I liked it. :)

I also liked and picked up on the love triangle that many people may miss or may have missed watching the film. Amisha Patel's character is in love with Karan Shah, but every time she made a move, KS would rebuff her. Arjun picked up on this and started showing her affection. If you missed this the first time, go back and watch it and you will see. I feel the the love triangle is the reason for the Arjun shocker twist! One angle of the triangle always has to yield to the most dominant and in the end only two can be equal.

I too thought Elaan was interesting, although the musical songs didn't particularly stand out. The cast were all good-looking -- Arjun Rampal, John Abraham, Lara Dutta, Amisha Patel, and even Rahul Khanna were all nice to look at. As far as the action scenes, some of the stuff was interesting in a "Sword of Gideon" type of way, but it was all over-the-top in a way that's typical of all Indian movies. It was nice to see some of India's best bodies and faces altogether in a scenic European backdrop. Even the mobster guy projected a unique malevolence. I think that a lot of Indian critics typically base their praise or criticism of any movie based on how politically correct it is. If it has any type of politically serious tone to it (eg. anti-terrorism) instead of the usual frivolous fantasy fluff, then there are a lot of left-wing writers who'll pounce to make any nitpick they can. So I'd say it's an entertaining over-the-top action thriller, but don't try to bash it by comparing it to Shakespeare.

Mithun "Dada" makes a great comeback as the antagonist in this action-packed thriller. He proves his worth in the climax of the movie with his convincing expressions and dialogues. Action is fantastic. Set in Europe, the action sequences are very thrilling. The beauty of Indian cinema is that even in a hardcore action film, you'll find a soul and emotions. The bonding of the "five unlikely heroes," their support for each other, and their determinations and frustrations were nicely shown. However, there is not much of a story in this movie. There is basically one mission for the team of five and their efforts towards accomplishing it. Nonetheless, the well-executed action scenes and character development fill that void. Songs are OK. Performances are decent. (Funny note: John Abraham's yelling/hissing noise at the end is really comical.)

While, to an extent, I do believe from reading the comments of other reviewers that the movie lacked a good storyline, and the characters are somewhat unbelievable, I liked this movie for amazing acting, despite the character flaws; I liked it because the tactics used in the movie are amazingly realistic and for the most part, practical. Sure, movies are often exaggerated and this one is no exception, some are exaggerated beyond the realms of acceptable beliefs of reality. This, however, is just within the confines of it. I enjoyed the movie and I would recommend it to anyone who enjoys tactical warfare...to the smaller scale. Hope it helped!

Elaan was a fantastic, action-packed film. I find it very difficult to find an exciting, entertaining Hindi film, yet this film fit the bill perfectly! There is not a second of boredom in the film. There are even a couple of comedic scenes, a couple of heart-wrenching emotional scenes, lots of action, etc. This has become one of my favorite movies. And it is filled with the coolest star cast - Amisha Patel, John Abraham, Arjun Rampul, etc. etc. You have to see this movie. Don't listen to any bad reviews you might read about it - movie critics are always unreasonably tough and harsh when it comes to rating films. I guarantee, it is a great film!!!!! (I was not paid to write this comment!)