In the 2003 remake, the one Players takes most inspiration from, you learn about the bad apple in the gang quite early in the story yet it succeeds to keep its viewer on tenterhooks by its meticulous, shrewd planning, swiftly-executed blow-ups and chases and likeable characters. Moreover, even the most snazzy, escapist fare begs for characters you care about or root for.
Throwing light on details of how exactly an international heist is planned isn’t a Players thing nor is tech wizardry. And so you have leading man Abhishek Bachchan scribbling gibberish on a map outline, akin to a bunch of red and blue markers dragged on a piece of paper by some school kid or explosives expert Sikander Kher finding the cheapest bit of circuit board with a shoddy LED bulb attached on to it by a crude cello tape to blow past high-security access. Let’s not even get started on Sonam Kapoor’s hacking expertise(Naina Virus alert, anyone?), Omi Vaidya’s mask-making skills or Bobby Deol’s illusionist tricks.
What you can rely on is the same old zigzag slyness that is more Race than Italian Job. Luckily the action sequences, while not many, aren’t too bad. The train robbery brings back memories of Roop Ki Rani Choron Ka Raja whereas the classic Mini Cooper chase hasn’t lost any of its charm and continues to regale even a lacklustre thriller like this.
Did I say lacklustre? That’s also how I’d sum up most of the players of this rather long enterprise. For Abhishek Bachchan, the wise guy with a smirk, stubble and sun glasses, this is a role he can now play in his sleep. I have an inkling he is.
Then there’s Neil Nitin Mukesh, who at one point, wears more sequins than the ones on Bipasha Basu’s dress. Poor guy, mistakes sinister for superficial, resulting in a truly phony performance. Basu, taking second billing to Sonam Kapoor, sets the tone for a hackneyed romance triangle, in a wardrobe that’s scarcer than Players’ imagination and role that’s as foreseeable as, oh wait this IS an Abbas-Mustan movie