The name’s Bond, James Bond. Err. They call me trinity. Argh. No wait, make that, when you have to shoot, shoot, don’t talk. Sigh. Watching Agent Vinod is like a walk down memory lane. If you’ve grown up on spy movies and/or Westerns, you’ll instantly realise Sriram Raghavan’s countless references in the film. He’s sampled bits and pieces from films like Once Upon A Time In The West, Leon, The Bourne Legacy etc. But his fan boy exuberance isn’t enough to save an overcooked pot-boiler.
Saif Ali Khan is Agent Vinod, a RAW agent on missions to thwart terrorist plans. That’s about it for character detailing, except of course a confession of past misfortunes which lasts for three insignificant minutes. The story is about how Agent Vinod travels across the Middle East, Russia and India to foil a terror attack. On the way he makes friends, he makes foes and he even finds a soul mate in the double crossing Kareena Kapoor. The film is well written. It’s well layered and detailed too. But its characters aren’t. Namely the lead. So Agent Vinod is supposed to be a super spy. Saif chooses to play him with more grit and less panache than required.
While the leads don’t quite hit the bull’s eye, the film fires high octane on all cylinders. The fast paced action and slick camera work make it seem like a Mission Impossible film. It’s worth every punch, every bullet and of course every quirky one-liner. But as the trained couch potato will tell you, the difference between a Casino Royale and Die Another Day is in extending the film’s canvas. To give the action film an intelligent personality. That’s Agent Vinod’s Achilles’ heel.
The film tries too hard to be smarter than your average secret agent. And therein lays the fatal flaw. Raghavan packs in about half a dozen key characters that bring in their own twists to the tale. By the end of it, his film ends up asking the viewer to suspend a little too much disbelief. Not that it’s bad, we’re used to much worse. The fact that his action sequences deliver is undeniable. But a medley of actors in bit roles (Gulshan Grover, Prem Chopra, Ravi Kissen, Dhritiman Chaterji and Arif Zakaria) just shows a filmmaker trying to balance the equation.
Performances by Adil Hussian and Ram Kapoor as the bad guys are fantastic. Kareena Kapoor and Saif Ali Khan look like Ursula Andress and Sean Connery. Made for each other. But perhaps not for the film. Watch this re-boot of the original Mahendra Sindhu cult hit. And you’ll quote the famous Mr Bond as, “Shaken, not stirred”.
Saif Ali Khan is Agent Vinod, a RAW agent on missions to thwart terrorist plans. That’s about it for character detailing, except of course a confession of past misfortunes which lasts for three insignificant minutes. The story is about how Agent Vinod travels across the Middle East, Russia and India to foil a terror attack. On the way he makes friends, he makes foes and he even finds a soul mate in the double crossing Kareena Kapoor. The film is well written. It’s well layered and detailed too. But its characters aren’t. Namely the lead. So Agent Vinod is supposed to be a super spy. Saif chooses to play him with more grit and less panache than required.
While the leads don’t quite hit the bull’s eye, the film fires high octane on all cylinders. The fast paced action and slick camera work make it seem like a Mission Impossible film. It’s worth every punch, every bullet and of course every quirky one-liner. But as the trained couch potato will tell you, the difference between a Casino Royale and Die Another Day is in extending the film’s canvas. To give the action film an intelligent personality. That’s Agent Vinod’s Achilles’ heel.
The film tries too hard to be smarter than your average secret agent. And therein lays the fatal flaw. Raghavan packs in about half a dozen key characters that bring in their own twists to the tale. By the end of it, his film ends up asking the viewer to suspend a little too much disbelief. Not that it’s bad, we’re used to much worse. The fact that his action sequences deliver is undeniable. But a medley of actors in bit roles (Gulshan Grover, Prem Chopra, Ravi Kissen, Dhritiman Chaterji and Arif Zakaria) just shows a filmmaker trying to balance the equation.
Performances by Adil Hussian and Ram Kapoor as the bad guys are fantastic. Kareena Kapoor and Saif Ali Khan look like Ursula Andress and Sean Connery. Made for each other. But perhaps not for the film. Watch this re-boot of the original Mahendra Sindhu cult hit. And you’ll quote the famous Mr Bond as, “Shaken, not stirred”.
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