Players review: "Lacks the believability of the original!!!"

2012 is upon us & along with it kindles the hopes of an even bigger, better year for the industry. With quite a few of them such as "Bodyguard", "Ready", "Don 2" etc. racking in big bucks, this week witnessed the release of  "Players" with similar hopes from the director duo of Abbas Mustan. This dynamic duo have craved a niche for themselves for their stylish films which is high on dare devilry stunts & interesting twists. So can their latest venture with an ensemble of stars be the first blockbuster of the year???

Bollywood is well known for their absolute disregard & shamelessness for ripping off from Hollywood flicks without even batting an eyelid. However, there has been a welcome change with Abbas Mustan obtaining the  rights for remaking the blockbuster "The Italian Job". Since many of my friends has seen the original, I dont believe this review requires much of an insight into the plot. Charlie (Abhishek Bachchan) plans on a gold heist from the Russians & is assisted in his mission by a team of the best tacticians which is put together by his mentor, Victor Braganza (Vinod Khanna). Though they successfully pull off the heist, the team gets double crossed by one among them. This unfolds further twists & turns; & how they manage to get even.

Abbas Mustan has always been the masters of suspense & twists but unfortunately they fail to inject a sense of surprise this time around. It's true that they have Indianised it & remained true to the original with a couple of twists of their own which however fails to excite us. The stunts are stylish & the cinematography by Ravi Yadav deserves a word of praise for the stunning locales. Another dampener is the mediocre scores by Pritam with hardly any song worthy enough of tapping our foot. But the biggest flaw is undoubtedly the unimaginative screenplay by Rohit Jugraj & Sudip Sharma, as the heist lacks the zing or originality of "Italian Job".

Now comes to the most important part of actually enacting it on screen, Abhishek Bachchan has done a decent job of being the man in command. Sikhandar Kher & Omi Vaidya fails to impart much impact while Sonam Kapoor yet again proves that she doesnt have a clue on how to emote on screen. Neil Nitin Mukesh displays his skills with his meaty role while Bobby Deol was wasted. Bips does keep the mercury rising with her oomph factor.

Verdict: "Players" will fail to make any impression in the box office & in all likelihood going to burn the producers hands. In short, you may as well watch the original in case you missed it!!!

Rating: 2/5

Regards...Ben