Race - A track full of surprises

Expect the unexpected has to be the mantra of this film. At the risk of sounding too generous, I would say Race was awesome. What with the racy music, the fast pace of the film and the constant twists and turns – the film was thrilling with mercury levels shooting up every minute.

Race had surprises stored up its sleeves (…err should we say, up it’s cleave…) all the way!

The only thing that was expected and was therefore not a surprise was the luster and glamour with which the film has been made! The film is a complete eye candy, but just for the ladies mind you! Chhote Nawab was simply delicious (I don’t know how else to describe him in the film; I’m at complete loss for words).

But like I said, this was a film that constantly kept me surprised. And I don’t mean just with the plot.

Surprise number 1 – the ladies looked really bad. Who would imagine that a film with hotties like Bipasha, Katrina and Sameera Reddy, would have to bank on a man to sell (now I don’t know what the men would say to this but when it comes to women, its we women that are more credible with opinions – we’re not biased solely by the show of skin).

Bipasha looked close to ugly, Katrina almost dumb and Sameera – I don’t even know what to say (she didn’t even fit the role of a dumb secy well enough). I guess even Anaita Shroff couldn’t give a damn to the sultry hotties when there was the royal Khan to look after. Bipasha, for example, had some red nail paint throughout the film even though there was only one sequence (the title song sequence) where she actually wore a matching outfit. Maybe it had something to do with the nail polish budgets or maybe Anaita just couldn’t care about her fingers when she wasn’t even concentrating enough on her face?

Unlike Dhoom 2, where pretty much everyone looked like a million dollars (we’ll ‘chop’ the few who just cannot, come what may), Race only had Saif Ali Khan doing all the hard work of looking good on screen.

Surprise number 2 for me was that Chhote Nawab actually didn’t dance too well. I mean I remember Ole Ole and I guess at that time we were all so caught up with wondering what’s a parrot face doing in films, that we forgot to notice his dance. The parrot face of course has today transformed into the face (and the body) that can cast a thousand ships (might be safer to say space ships in today’s day and age) and has shown dancing potential in Salaam Namaste, Hum Tum and Ta ra rum pum, but I wonder what happened to him in Race? He was rather stiff – what IS Kareena doing to him?

Surprise number 3 was Anil Kapoor. Now the man has potential and it shows. The film started with narration that sounded so close to Mr. India talking that there was no mistaking the effort put in by Mr. Kapoor. But who was writing his dialogues in the second half of the film? What with really sub par jokes on fruits, his abominable attempts to seduce the already terribly dumb Sameera and out of context supposed-to-be-smart comments – I almost felt bad for him.

Surprise number 4 was the music. When at one hand, 3 songs have been of immeasurable quality, how did Sameer and Pritam go so wrong with the remaining? Race saason ki, Pehli Nazar and Touch me have been causing waves all over the country and rightfully so. But I had to shut my ears when the other songs came on. If casting-couch is a reality with directors, then maybe potting-pouch is a reality with musicians. They should just stop with 3 if that is what they have they could manage instead of trying a little too hard and putting us through the repercussions of the remaining.

Many many more surprises is what, to my mind, makes Race a must watch. Abbas-Mustan just seem to be getting better with their thrillers, from Bazigar to Humraz to 36 China Town and now Race. There seems to be nothing stopping the duo and we’re quite glad about it of course. Even gladder if they would keep bringing back the Greek God clone Chhote Nawab again and again to keep our heart beats racing!