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.

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.)

I hate to downplay a movie specially when the Filmamakers spend enormous amount of money on a foreign location but when they come up with a jalopy action film-it is well deserved. First and foremost is the music or lack of it specially the background music. The Story is as stagnant as the waters of Venice(It appears that Venice has only two cars and both are used by Baba Secunder). The two actors who cannot emote are Lara Dutta and Arjun Rampal and the two who can are Amisha Patel and John Abraham-and the one who really did some acting was Rahul Khanna. As far as Amisha Patel-this square jawed actress with ears as big as Himachal Pradesh looks cute in Anna Singh designed clothes but she has peaked in her acting with "Gadar" and looks with "Humraaz". As far as John Abraham-a good actor under state of confusion.Mithun Chakraborty--fits the bill as a Hindi Villain, since he is tall,dark,has long sideburns (or freshly painted)), and his voice comes across as strong and mean for ransom demands on Board room speaker phones!. I can't fathom a director in the caliber of Vikram Bhatt (Raaz) directing this "junk Bond" film. The song breaks and the "personal narration" that breaks into a song interludes are the only break from the monotony of endless gunfire when the ammo runs out a lifeless character is doneaway. The movie has nothing to offer in the way of entertainment or action-a disappointment coming from Vikram Bhatt.

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!

One more Masala movie released on the same day along with another masala movie Insan. One more time Sholay (1975) has been revisited and that too by Vikram Bhatt whose every movie is plagiarize of a Hollywood pictures and even this time also there are so many scenes which are lifted from different Hollywood products. Even Sholay was a mixture of 2 to 3 Hollywood movies i.e. The Seven Samurai, The magnificent 7, Once upon in a west.

This time the Thakur role is played by Rahul Khanna, Jai and Veeru roles are played by Arjun Rampal and John Abraham and Gabbar role went to the Legendary Actor Mithun Chakraborty who has made a comeback in A grade movies with Elaan and will win the nomination in the best villain category. He has given a remarkable performance after Gudiyareleased in 98.

Rahul Khanna has debuted in the commercial cinema with this movie and has done a great job. He performed his role with confidence. John Abraham has gone overboard in few sequences and also in his introductory action scene (which is a lift from First Blood 3 a.k.a. Rambo 3. I think Vikram like that action scene because he used that action scene in Awara Pagal Deewana for Sunil Shettys introductory action scene). Arjun Rampal is functional and has given a conventional performance. Amisha Patel has done a good job after Humraaz.She was looking gorgeous in this movie and got more footage than the Lara Dutta and why not she is the girlfriend of the captain of he ship, I mean the director of the film, Vikram Bhatt. Lara Dutta has done her stunts by herself (she tried to become like Lara Croft) but has nothing much to do except showcasing her attractive face and body. Ritu Shivpuri has done fine job in a short role. One wonders she should have got a full fledge role in this movie and why the directors are not casting her in their movies. Chunky Pandey has also done a fine job in a short role.

Escaping from the prison is a direct lift from Spy Game. And even Arjuns first action scene is a lift from Hard Target. The major setback in the movie is the climax. The way they trap Mithun makes you wonder if he really all that powerful (as it has been shown in the beginning of the film that his phone call can sound your death knell) and he does nothing except sitting silently in a room. What happened to all that flames, anger and poison? Elaan has few scenes lifted from Loha released in 87 and China Gate released in 98 which were also inspired by the movies The Seven Samurai, The magnificent 7, Once upon in a west. Scenes like when Shatrughan Sinha promises his son (young jugal hansraj) in the movie Loha that he will take him for holidays but the mission comes in between and he leave for mission and break his promise and also when Naseeruddin Shah wants to adopt a girl in the movie China Gate and he dies and after that Om Puri does the service. In Elaan too, Arjun make promise to his child but breaks it because of the mission and when he dies in the end Rahul adopts his child.

Cinemography is of first rate. Well penned dialogues and good choreography. Appealing background score.

As predicted, it will do a good business in interiors and its good news for Mithun Chakraborty fans that they will get to see a good movie with a good performance by the Legend. 21/2 Out of 5.