Watched it in one go last night but that does not mean it's good. It is such a clichéd spy TV show that there are so many times I felt that it should have been made in the years 1992 or 2000 where this story jumps back and forth. Why do the makers of Indian movies or TV feel the need to display a big year sign every time a story timeline transition happens? The audiences are presumed to be naive every time a 1992 or a 2000 appears on the screen in my opinion (and trust me it appears hundreds if not thousands of times). All I am saying is there are some really cool ways that certain filmmakers use to demonstrate this transition. One such method could have been to switch from the cameras available in 1992 and 2000 respectively at the start of this transition and then fade it out but who am I to give suggestions. It really does a good job when the leads are shown as children and you can see the transitions and storytelling becomes completely different from what we see in this back and forth "in your face, you are stupid" banners for 1992 and 2000.
As the title of this review says, expected a lot better from Raj & DK especially due to the fact that a story which could be a 2 hour movie is dragged to almost 6 hours to match the continuity of other series in the same universe.
Talking about the performances now. Varun Dhawan and the little girl are standout performers for me and in a parallel universe it would be so much fun to actually watch both of them in a father daughter spy duo. Samantha tries her best to fit into the character and shines in the earlier episodes of this series with her acting but her overall appearance and close up shots of "went under the knife giveaways" is somewhat irritating and not to mention her accent keeps on changing from being 'normal' in some places and then switching back to a southern forced accent (both Hindi and English) which, I assume, was added for fun elements but falls flat according to me.
Overall it is a big, stretched spy story filled with lot of usual cr*p. As this review is almost as long, boring and probably as meaningless as this show by now, I will still try to highlight some of the things that make it hard to watch.
- Why do shooters have to come close to the main actors in a fight sequence even though they are carrying semi automatic guns?
- None of the supposed bad guys on the wrong side of the storyline seem to have any sort of tactical training. They all come in SUVs, get out of it and literally start walking towards two people shooting at them. I mean they are supposed to be highly trained agents of a legit organisation.
- The lead actress is abducted in the opening sequences of the film and left with her pager in her pocket while still being in the boot of the car. Which she uses to communicate with her daughter.
- You will not see a single cop in the series (maybe there were some but my mind just did not process them being there :P). This has been shot in India and Siberia and seems the cops are out on a holiday while people are ransacking a village or a hotel or even the streets of big cities in both the countries.
I can go on with these goofs as I expected probably way too much from this series but it falls flat for me. Probably the makers did not get the freedom from the studio which is being loathed about in the social media after all. We are a long way from creating a show such as "Bodyguard" or "Slow Horses" but it is a start at least.
