I dared and decided to watch "Vinodi Agent" last Saturday. Read below what and how this movie turned out.
First 20 Minutes - Too loud background score along with foreground firing, bullets and bombing. Either they forgot to mute one out of this. These 20 minutes work as "Medical Anesthesia" to make your brain senseless for remaining two and half hours of movie. Also initial action sequence is a similar approach of Casino Royale or Quantum of solace. But fails in this movie. So if you miss first 20 minutes, you wont miss anything important from the movie as entire story line has nothing to do what happens in recent past of the movie.
At the end of initial 15-20 minutes, comes the movie titles, treatment is inspired by Bond movies but goes nowhere near to that. Too cluttered screen animation, too harsh colors and tooooooooooooo harsh music makes people to forget reading the names. Apart from Saif and kareena(not read from titles but I know them by face), I dont remember I read anything from the titles.
Overall Plot - entire movies is shot in 12-13 countries, same to this, you should treat this movie as 12-13 stories. One story(scene in one country) may not necessarily have any connection with another story happening in other country. Many actors / roles come and go.
Don’t stress yourself much to know from where they came and where they disappeared.
Vinodi Agent has too much of sixth sense that he trusts or distrusts anyone in the movie without any clue. He has great 6th sense, more than James Bond. Specifically why he trusts Kareena is a big question when his junior also tells him that she is a cheater. I guess his off screen relation with her forces him to trust her and increase her role’s length.
Harassment of Vinodi agent is taken from many recent bond flicks(particularly Pirece Brosnon & Danial Craig acted).
Overall action scenes are full of sound tracks, firing sounds and extreme camera movement so acts as additional booster dosage of "Anesthesia".
On Acting front - Distance between Saif and Acting is equal to the distance between 13 countries used in the movie. Kareena, as usual typical and flexibility of being hottie sitting on bike, one mujara song, sobbing female, dynamic agent to a terrorist. But no success in making impression of her acting.
Remaining many actors, none got a chance to act, they change at the speed of country change.
On the songs and music - I dont remember if this movie had any songs, vaguely remember one Mujra song. Already written about background score which fails to score a single digit too. Usage of old hindi tracks in the background is an another effort to give this movie a bollywood touch but failed effort. I guess the background score music director is not able to create new so he used old track in instrumental form.
Twists and turns in Plot - movie has too many twists and turns just like maggie nuddles. And in reality it is an failed effort to make an interesting plot. Till date we have seen(in bollywood) terrorist organizations, religious organizations and political people behind terrorism. In this movie, bollywood matured a bit and introduced global business tycoons behind terrorism.
But again, like any other hindi movie made on terrorism, this also fails in the department of firm conclusion and leaves viewers in confused state. I guess no hindi director has guts to tell reality.
Now few words about SAIF - I have a soft corner about Saif only because he is a son of Great Nawab Pataudi. Else I never considered him as an actor or he never proved himself as an actor. I guess he had specially designed this move that he should be there on screen for 80% of movie duration. Just like SRK movie. May be, He wanted to give a dosage of his acting which he missed in last 1-2 years of "on screen presence".
All in all, if you miss this movie, wont repent. 13 countries. Now a days, many bollywood movies show nice international locations nicely in camera so you at least feel WOW on those scenes. but this movie fails on this front too.
I bet, this movie would have been made only in slums of dharavi, why to go 13 countries. Camera and story just want to show Saifs expressionless face then why they chose 13 countries. Means, I could not understand or digest the reason of 12-13 countries. Now take an example of "ZNMD". That gives a complete pleasant tour of Spain. But that’s not the case in "Vinodi Agent". Then why this many countries and why not Dharavi or 13 cities of India?
Frankly, when I came out of "Anesthesia" I could not remember that I had seen this movie. It took me 36 hours to come to senses and write this review.
People may or may not like what I wrote here, but these are my views and my social responsibility to keep you warned from saving you from spending your hard earned money and time.