Perhaps the most awaited an over hyped movie of this year... Kaante sadly fails to impress. Its yet another movie with a phoren connection that just fails to meet the expectations raised by the hype. The backdrop of the movie is the NRI Underworld in LA (and I thought that existed only in middle east) the characters all hardened criminals (?) some of whom have quit crime and are trying to make honest bucks. (Heard that one before) Major (Bachhan) even has a business plan for it and is talking to a financier when he’s taken into custody.
The group meets in the prison where they hatch a plan to work unitedly and hit back at the establishment (Yawn) the script seems to be suspiciously like an old Hollywood production Reservoir Dogs. Thereafter almost 100 minutes is spent planning out the robbery. This is the par where viewers could have been given insights into the characters, but the director has thrown the opportunity in favor of song and dance numbers. Though these are slick by themselves at times they seem out of place in the story. This part of the movie is also rich in humor and antics of Manjrekar who comes across as a good actor. When the robbery finally happens things go awfully wrong and then there is this feeble attempt at creating a suspense (How did it happen? Who squealed?) As it turns out one of the six has betrayed the others but the question is who. This the suspense which the rest of the story is supposedly all about. But it falls flat as you know the answer to the whodunnit as soon as the question is asked but then the cast and the director make all attempts to mislead you with rather silly digressions, sideshows and events which try your Patience till the mystery is finally revealed and you end up saying ’’Oh! I knew it all along, why make such a fuss about something which was obvious?’’
The movie is dominated by the three people Bachhan, Dutt and Manjrekar, the last one because of his witticisms and one liners. his character is supposed to be the most dangerous of the lot being mentally/emotionally unstable however the script writer has largely missed developing it much to the detriment of the story. in fact many aspects of this person come as a complete surprise to the viewer and often irritate if not disturb the continuity of the storyline.
As it is all the characters have been developed poorly and its on raw screen presence and powerful voices that Bachhan and Dutt dominate the movie. On the whole there is little to justify the long wait, the ’Hollywood class’ hype or the price of the tickets. Watch the movie if you have nothing better to do. In some parts you may like it and in other parts you can probably try to forgive the producer, the director and scriptwriter. I will forget this one and fast.