Disclaimer: I haven’s seen THE ITALIAN JOB on which the film PLAYERS are said to be based. So, if you have seen THE ITALIAN JOB and want to know about PLAYERS, better read from a reviewer who has seen both.
’Mindless action thriller’- ’Players’ is a good example of that. That means, if you are going to question the logic behind various situations you may not find any, still you may enjoy watching the mindless action which indeed gives thrill.
There is a difference in nature between a policeman and a robber. A robber is an artist and never quit his job. There are fine players among the robbers and Charlie (Abhishekh Bachchan) is the best in present. Then, some games are such that it needs many players and need the training and guidance by a coach. One such situation arrives when Charlie got a plan to loot from the gold which Russia is shipping back to Romania (which they took it for safe custody at the time of WW1). Lands in the team is a partner in crime and sweet heart of Charlie, Riya (Bipasha Basu), Make up artist Sunny (Omi Vaidya), car crazy explosive expert Bilal (Sikander Kher), first class Magician (Bobby Deol) & World’s best hacker Spider (Neil Nitin Mukesh). A retired thief and prisoner (Vinod Khanna) will be the coach and his daughter Naina (Sonam Kapoor) as the other woman who have a crush on Charlie.
The film has a Hollywoodish colour throughout. The beginning of the film was little pretty ordinary and was not that impressive. Then, from the moment the mission starts it was a nail biting thrill and when the interval arrives we get a feel of a complete film and we know in Hindi films there will be more reels to come after interval. Another mission starts and with many twists that too become impressive and when the end finally arrives with cuff free robbers we are here to praise the robbers for the thrill they give in the process. The writing is not error proof and many a time the logic takes a backseat. Dialogues are good. Direction by Abbas Mustan is good in general where they and very good in some departments and weak in some other. Casting could have been better for the movie and the director doesn’t make the best use of the available ones. Technically the film could have been better. Having said all, the directors succeed in keeping the interest and thrill from the moment the mission begins till the end. The film is a lengthy one and it could have trimmed by 10 to 15 minutes minimum. There is plenty of skin show as well but it never goes to the crude level. What works for the film is the pace and thrill which the movie manages to maintain to engage the viewer completely once they are into the film. Some occasional fun and never short of twists and turns with suspense make sure that the film is a suspense action thriller despite its lack of logic at times.
Abhishek Bachchan did the role very well. This is not his best performance, but the actor has done many such roles and carries the same image with ease. Neil Nitin Mukesh got an important role and the actor did it with elan, keeping his reputation in tact. After a long time, Bipasha Basu is seen in a role tailor maid for her. Sonam Kapoor is a miscast for the role. She tries to do justice to the role, but sorry, Sonam is not suitable to make an action girl. Her eyes don’t have that wild fire nor the body fit for an action like she did though in short time. Bobby Deol did his role quite comfortably and we wish he was there in the second half as well. Omi Vaidya got a tailor made character and he do evoke some laugh in between the serious proceedings. Sikander Kher got a half cooked character but he did the insignificant role well, no points taken out. Vinod Khanna did his guest appearance quite well. So is Aftab Shivdasani. Johny Lever did the small comedy role with ease. Overall, the cast performance is average to good but thanks to the directors, it never reaches the excellent level.
The film has got some beautiful locations that the camera got it well. Then the works by the cinematographer don’t reach the very good tag where it could have been much better presented. The editing department didn’t help to make the matter any better.
The songs of the movie are average to good, suiting to the situation. Choreography is adequate but the camera and editing fails to project the efforts to bring the impression it could have made if with a better technical crew.
Action scenes by Allan Amin are impressive and that is the highlight of the film. This action master is getting noticed time again!
On the lack of logic side of the film, some basic home work is missing. Say, how many gold pallets can be transferred in three minutes by hand from a moving train with the support of another moving train? If they do ten, I can grand they are macho but here.... The illusion trick was little too much. How much time it will take to build three car bodies with bullions, that too in a makeshift garage? How the fifth member’s absence is justified in a critical operation like they did in mission 2? The film has many loop holes to make it as cartoonish in style and mindless in nature. Then, the question whether the action scenes are competent to make us ignore them? And as per my observation it did.
So, what is the final verdict? If you like suspense action thrillers, ’Players’ is a good watch. You may find many places without much logic to support but the plus side in action may compensate for it.
My rating: 3.5 stars