Players Review

Players is India' s official remake of the classic The Italian Job. This film was again remade in 2003. It had the same name and in the lead was Mark Wahlberg. In our version, we have Abhishek Bachan in the lead role. The story and the screenplay have been changed quite a bit to suit the Indian audiences. This film was also promoted quite a lot and therefore, there are some expectations from it. The star cast of the film also requires this film to be hit as most of them badly need a hit film at the box-office.

Charles (Abhishek Bachan) is a great con artist and he idolizes Victor Dada (Vinod Khanna). Though, Victor is in jail, he helps Charles and his girlfriend Ria (Bipasha Basu) assemble a team of players to rob gold worth 10,000 crore. It is being transferred from Russia. The team comprises Bilal (Skinader Kher), who is an explosive expert, Rony (Bobby Deol), who is an illusionist, Sunny (Omi Vaidya) who is a prosthetic expert and finally, Spider (Neil Nitin Mukesh), who is the tech guy. However, one of them turns out to be wolf in sheep' s clothing and betrays all of them. He kills quite a few and takes all the gold for himself.

Now, out of nowhere, some of the supposedly dead guys come together and plan to take revenge on him. They take the help of Victor' s daughter, Naina (Sonam Kapoor) and decide to steal all the gold from their former partner. Will they succeed, or will the backstabber succeed again?

Uninspired is the word. Though, this film is inspired from the Hollywood classic and its remake, the way it has been done is not that great. Only the cinematography is superb. Sadly, the rest just does not match up. The performances are quite run-of-the-mill and there is not much to talk about. There are a few humorous moments thanks to Johnny Lever and Omi Vaidya, but you cannot bear the whole film just because of that.

The changes made in the story and screenplay is not that great. The twists given are predictable and even seem somewhat silly. The sheer number of twists and turns will irritate the audience. The characters are well defined but are not backed by the scenes written for them. Dialogues are alright; the dialogues for Omi Vaidya and Johnny Lever are quite funny.

The direction is good. Abbas-Mustan are veterans and they handle the subject well, but they really needed to pay attention to the story and eliminate the unnecessary confusions. The casting also has to be questioned. Many of them look completely out of place. Abbas-Mustan have done a poor job in casting the right people. They also have failed to get good performances from all. Only the two funny men, Johnny Lever and Omi Vaidya, have performed well.

Abhishek Bachan is strictly okay. He has done nothing different from his previous films. He needs to take up unique roles like the one he did in Guru, if he wishes to survive in this industry. Bobby Deol is also okay, but nothing that would leave a mark. Neil Nitin Mukesh looks out of place. Bipasha does a good job. She acts well and looks stunning throughout. Sonam doesn' t really get much scope. She is hardly there in the first half and her second half performance is not that great either.

Vinod Khanna does a good job. Sikander Kher is bad. Johnny Lever and Omi Vaidya provide some light moments which are enjoyable. The rest of the support cast is good, but the cameo by Aftab Shivdasani is ineffective.

The music of the film is mediocre. None of the songs are good and only add to the misery of the audience. The cinematography is exceptional. Though, many of the shots are similar to The Italian Job, they are still good and would leave a mark on the audience. The editing is also good. The production value is good. The producers have not held back on anything and have tried their best to make it look sophisticated and slick.

The film was well promoted and would draw a good audience, but they are let down by the poor execution of the story. Also, the people who have seen the original or even the remake will not like Players one bit. This movie becomes the first flop film of 2012.

Rating: **

Verdict: Instead of Players, the film should have been called Loser, because that is what the producers are going to be.

Reviewed by: Harshal Anand

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