Dhoom 3

A fun multi-star franchise that loses out because of its single-minded focus on one star

It’s great when we have our own entertainment franchises like Race and Dhoom, with babes and dudes and wheels. But it is not so great when a movie star with delusions of grandeur turns up and spoils the party.

Aamir Khan has hijacked the third Dhoom film and it’s just not fair. In what has been, so far, a lighthearted action film series, this circus ringmaster turns up and turns the spotlight onto himself for three exhausting hours.

No other lion is allowed to roar. The film is about an Indian circus act in Chicago that went bankrupt a few decades ago with the owner (Jackie Shroff) killing himself. Part of his show were his twin sons. Everyone thought he had only one son, and by keeping this information secret he could pull off some spectacular illusions.

Sahir and Samar are now all grown up but they still keep their secret and they still run their father’s circus, only now the purpose is to ruin the Chicago Banker, Mr Anderson (Andrew Bicknell), who took over their father’s assets. Aamir Khan plays both twins, one sharp and the other mentally challenged, so that you get to see his great Indian rope trick. He works very hard at playing the two distinct characters, and the movie devotes so much time to it that Dhoom 3 could well be an acting workshop conducted by Mr Khan for the benefit of his co-stars.

These include Abhishek Bachchan, who plays a police officer from India called in by MrAnderson to solve the mysterious robberies that are destroying his bank, and Katrina Kaif, a dancer at the circus. The Katrina character is in love with one of the twins, but dates the wrong one, so was obviously not paying attention at the workshop.

This is a well-mounted film that looks pretty and goes nowhere. It has a script, but no directorial perspective. From a series that worked essentially as multi-star entertainment, this third edition has been ground to a halt by its single minded focus on one star.

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Ajit Duara