Udita Jhunjhunwala

Race

Direction: Abbas-Mustan
Cast: Saif Ali Khan, Akshaye Khanna, Bipasha Basu, Katrina Kaif, Anil Kapoor, Sameera Reddy
Rating: **

Brevity is one of the biggest contributors to maintaining the pace of a thriller. Sadly, that is one of the primary hurdles for Race –- its two and half hour length with several songs interjected and too many twists and turns in the plot, do it no favours. Fans of Abbas-Mustan would probably be content watching this fully formula film, which offers few cinematic surprises and takes no risks.

Ranveer (Saif Ali Khan) and Rajiv (Akshaye Khanna) are stepbrothers. While Ranveer is a calculating and unforgiving horse-breeder and race horse owner, Rajiv is the pampered, alcoholic younger brother.

We soon realise that their loyal, fraternal love is one big sham with a jealous and slighted Rajiv seeking the ultimate victory over his brother.

Between race-fixing, revenge and sabotage, there are two women vying for Ranveer's affections: aspiring model Soniya (Bipasha Basu) and Sophiya (Katrina Kaif), his personal assistant. Besides being clothes horses (I have never seen a better dressed assistant), the two girls get embroiled in the mind game between the brothers.

Anil Kapoor, a fruit-loving tribute to Karamchand, makes a timely entry as RD, the investigating officer in charge of determining whether a death was accident or murder. He comes complete with the accessory of the bimbo assistant in the form of Mini (Sameera Reddy).

As they attempt to fit the pieces of this murky jigsaw puzzle, the story throws up so many 'surprising' shifts in allegiances that you begin to lose all sympathy or affinity for any of the characters.

The story weaves in more twists than you would find on the Western Ghats, leaving you exhausted by the end of the ride. But the biggest flaw in the story is the protagonist's motivation in wanting his target dead, which is weak and unconvincing.
 
Though Kapoor and Reddy are meant to infuse some comic relief, the only laugh of the film comes with Johny Lever's cameo as a marriage registrar.

The songs are glossy but do not serve any purpose in moving the plot along. The editing style, especially the use of picture-in-picture and split screen devices, is done-to-death. The camerawork only occasionally does justice to the South African locales.

The costumes vacillate between rather 80’s to designer, but tell us nothing of the characters; besides Saif who always looks dapper in suits.

The redeeming factors are the performances by the two lead actors: Khan and Khanna ride the graphs of their characters with ease. Allan Amin's action comes to the fore only in the final car race. Recommended only for die-hard Abbas-Mustan; the rest will find that this Race feels more like a marathon.