Dhoom:2 is Double the Masti and Double the Paisa Vasool

It's the season of sequels and remakes right now in Bollywood. The good news is that the film-makers are not just trying to ride on the popularity of the original films to make quick money from the sequels, as proved by the sequel 'Lagey Raho Munnabhai', which is making even more business, and earning even better critical reviews, than the original 'Munnabhai MBBS'. Another success story is currently being written at the box office by the sequel of one of the biggest hits of 2004 i.e. Dhoom. In line with the success story of 'Lagey Raho Munnabhai', Dhoom:2 is getting better reviews than its first edition and the industry pundits are predicting that it will be the bigger hit of the two. The age of sequels and trilogies has arrived in India.

If you liked the movie Dhoom, be ready to be completely blown by the Dhoom:2 experience. The primary reason for the success of Dhoom, and now Dhoom:2, is the unique combination of novelty and simplicity. Nobody would've believed that a bike-movie like Dhoom would get such a positive response from the Indian audiences, who are more attuned to the melodramatic movies of Karan Johar and Yash Chopra. Dhoom created a new page in the history of Indian cinema and Dhoom:2 takes the legacy forward in great style. The film of course cannot be compared with the timeless classics like Mother India or Deewar; nor do they come even close to message-oriented serious entertainers like Lagaan and Munnabhai MBBS. Instead, Dhoom quintessentially belongs to the genre of light, fast paced, action thriller movies whose success stands on a simple philosophy: Do not ever bore the audiences. Though not an intelligent or a captivating script, it scores where other similar attempts fell flat on their faces. It is also here where Dhoom:2 also does the job so well; it retains the spirit of simplicity of old Dhoom, yet takes the entertainment levels to the next stage. Hrithik Roshan has bigger star appeal than John Abraham; riding high on the success of the past year, Abhishek Bachhan is much more confident as cop-in-the-t-shirts than he was in Dhoom; Aishwarya Rai's experiment with the new look is refreshing and the film uses a much bigger budget for the action scenes and the picturisation of songs. The viewers are the winners in the end.

Dhoom:2 starts in the same way as Dhoom, with an unbelievable(?!) robbery executed effortlessly by the perfect conman - Mr. A(Hrithik). But more important is what it does NOT start with: Hrithik Roshan growing up as a child in a rural village, where the merciless villain murders his righteous father prompting him to take the wrong path. If he is a thief, he is a thief; no time spared for the justifications. In fact, the viewer is made to love the coolness associated with all his robberies, no place for any moralities here. The robbery is then followed by the dazzling entry of Abhishek Bachhan on a motorboat. The pairing of Abhishek Bachhan and Uday Chopra a second time in this film might take it next to the now legendary pair of Munnabhai and Ciruit. For some reason, the chemistry between Abhishek and Uday Chopra never looks as great as the characters seemed to have demanded. They entertain the audiences with their own style of comedy nevertheless.

Ash's introduction in her new tanned skin look and anime-girl costume is stylish too. She looks as cool as Angelina Jolie from the Tomb Raider series - until she opens her mouth that is. It is one of those aspects of the film that could have been better handled and the criticism should be directed towards the director in this case. A bit more effort in handling Ash might have made her iconic(or at least as slick as Shilpa Shetty looked in Dus). A victim of similar lack of attention or importance is Abhishek Bachhan's character; where every detail of Hrithik's dare-devils is given maximum attention, even the background music doesn't excite the audience much when Abhishek outsmarts Hrithik for the first time at the interval time. In that sense, it is an out and out Hrithik Roshan's film and the other characters are there only to support him in blowing away the audience's imaginations. He was the cynosure of all teenage girls' eyes and they didn't care if they were gasping too loudly every time Hrithik was shown doing the dare-devils on the screen. Uday Chopra did slightly better in this film than in the earlier Dhoom, surprising the audiences by bringing smiles to their faces on at least one out of five attempts. His day dreaming humour continues this time with Bipasha Basu, who has a forgettable role in the first half where she only has to fill the frames with Abhishek Bachhan.

Only one song succeeds in setting the stage on fire - Crazy Kiya Re, and with its fast beats and great hummable tune, not to forget Ash in the brand new look, it might be the strongest reason if you decide to watch the movie again. The last song is also full of energy and brings the entire cast of the film together on the dance floor. The rest of the songs are almost forgettable.

The film is completely devoid of any logic though, so remember to keep your brains at home while going to watch this movie. This is no intelligently written one-upmanship game between the cop and the thief. Hrithik uses one of the dumbest tricks to do all the robberies and Abhishek comes with even dumber ways to catch him. But you wouldn't be watching Dhoom if you were looking for a serious cop-n-thief chase game, now, would you?

On the whole, the film is a completely fun-filled, exciting, roller-coaster ride for those who enjoy light-hearted action films. If attention-grabbing stunts, thrilling chases, heavy background score with minimum bollywood-ish drama is what makes an entertaining film for you, then look no other way; Dhoom:2 will cross all your expectations.