Agent Vinod

If a movie is to be considered good, it should qualify for that as a whole. If certain (or even all) parts of the movie are good but they do not work together in tandem with consistency and harmony to provide a satisfactory experience to the spectator, the movie cannot be admired.

This is what has happened with Agent Vinod. It has great action and thrill, a very good entertaining song (in the style of Bollywood during the sixties to the eighties), admirable performances from the lead actors and finally a very good story with an impressive climax lasting for 20-25 minutes. There are many skilfully executed scenes in the movie (alongwith certain childish sequences as well). All the same, I won't consider it as a brilliant entertainer. It's just an above average movie, something that we did not expect when a talented director like Sriram Raghavan was behind the camera and a talented actor like Saif Ali Khan was in front of the camera. It's a let down from the Saif-Raghavan duo who had delivered a brilliant thriller like Ek Hasina Thi (2004) from the Ram Gopal Varma Camp.

Agent Vinod, as the name suggests, is the story of an agent of the Indian Intelligence (RAW, to be precise) who gets an assignment to dig out the circumstances in which another agent (Ravi Kishan) had lost his life. The investigative and daredevil activities of this agent, Vinod (Saif Ali Khan) brings him into contact with a pretty but daredevil (like him) girl, Ira Parveen (Kareena Kapoor). There are several baddies in the scenario, coming across whom the adventures of these two unearth the plot of a nuclear explosion. Finally, the hero succeeds not only in preventing the nuclear explosion but also in reaching the real planner of these events whose wicked activities are hidden from the eyes of the world.

The narrative of Agent Vinod moves through several countries (even my counting failed) and contains several blows and counter-blows between the goodies and the baddies with countless heads rolling in the process. As per my understanding, the intelligence agents or the spies are trained in such a way that they rise above emotions and not moved by mishaps in the lives of the individuals (whether in own life or in the lives of the other ones). However our filmwaalas are yet to come out of the earlier era and the old-fashioned sentimental twists are still kept to tone down the profoundness of the story (and play with the sentiments of the Indian viewers as well).

The narrative is fast-paced, no doubt but this pace does not allow the viewer to understand the movement of the story and the meaning of different things shown on the screen in a proper way. Events running on the screen are known to the director because the film is nothing but a realization of his vision only. However my dear Mr. Sriram Raghavan, they should be understood by the audience too whom the movie is ultimately meant for. And that's why when the mastermind is unmasked in the ending reel, it does not look convincing because even the most intelligent and logical viewer cannot connect him to the baddies that had already come before him in the movie (and cannot make out the connection of the baddies among themselves also). Should we believe that a sovereign country like Pakistan and its intelligence wing, ISI work for an individual who has his own axe to grind through their operations ? Too far-fetched. Putting it straight, the many good parts of the movie do not act together to make the movie impressive and entertaining as a whole.

The movie boasts of a huge production value and the different locales of the many countries involved have been portrayed beautifully on the screen. Technical aspects are superb except the editing part. The movie is just too long and that's why starts boring the viewer. It should have been short by at least 15-20 minutes. Action sequences and thrills (especially in the final reels) are the essence of the movie. The final phase of the movie (final 20-25 minutes) is the most interesting and gripping part of it.

As far as the music composed by Preetam is concerned, it's according to the mood of the movie. I won't term it as excellent. Only the Mujra song picturized in the old fashioned way is impressive in listening to as well as watching on the screen. And quite interestingly, Maryam Zakaaria looks better than Kareena Kapoor in that song.

Performances are praiseworthy. Saif Ali Khan is a very good actor who has groomed himself to such an extent that he can fit the bill for any role. He is the heart and soul of the movie and the movie deserves a watch for his fans. Kareena Kapoor has also done well alongwith her pretty looks though her character confuses at many places. She dies in the end because our filmmakers are still not gutsy enough to show an Indian Hindu male marrying a Pakistani Muslim girl. The supporting cast is routine.

My final words - Agent Vinod is strictly a one time watch and that too for the action-loving audience. It's a collection of some good parts which do not sum up to a coherent whole. Frankly speaking, this movie, in its major part, is just like a jigsaw puzzle which instead of entertaining the viewer, leaves him mentally exhausted in trying to join its pieces together in the correct way.

I mean, seriously, HOW could SO many people downright LOATHE this film? Yes, it's a departure from director Sriram Raghavan's past work. Yes, Kareena's character Iram is (the only character) badly written. Yes, Vinod may rely too much on luck at times, but that's the thing, isn't it?

It's a MOVIE, a DREAM of the director, where ANYTHING can happen. And, to that respect, Agent Vinod is actually logical, and makes sense, something rare in Indian action flicks, since most are just rip-offs of South Indian actioners, with a single hero sending 20-30 baddies flying with one, hand movement, or whatever it is.

The action is frantically energetic, but still controlled and realistic. Agent Vinod has many great gunfights, and feels a lot like an action- espionage video game more than a film. Which isn't bad.

Nonetheless, Agent Vinod has great characters, and a nice plot, within all that action. Saif Ali Khan is sharp as RAW agent Vinod, and the supporting cast just add even more to the entire film by their performances as the numerous villains of Agent Vinod. Ram Kapoor and Adil Hussain, especially, are great.

There are only a few problems I had with Agent Vinod. The underwritten and unnecessary female part of Kareena, leading to lack of the Saif- Kareena chemistry (which seemed to be the only thing that the dumb people watching this film cared about), and the songs are mediocre, I guess. Otherwise, you've got a pretty bombastic, explosive, yet smart espionage thriller that SHOULD have been the flagship Indian secret agent bonanza at the box office, if only the consumers would have cared less for masala, and more for good cinema, that's wholly entertaining as well as smart.

Agent Vinod was an attempt which was wasted by weak direction and poor script. It focused more on the production values rather than content of the film.

Pakistan ISI agent is planning to implant bomb in the heart of New Delhi. Only one man , can stop this –Agent Vinod(Saif Ali Khan). Time is clicking and he must swing into action with help of another Pakistani agent ( Kareena Kapoor) , who was wrongly accused in a London Blast some time back, to save the city before the terrorists turn it into ruins.

I have been an immense admirer of Director Sriram Raghavan's early work(Ek Haseena Thi , Johnny Gaddar) but I was disappointed big time with this flick. His style of direction is more of thriller with twist in the end which is clearly missing here. Even loose screenplay couldn't salvage the film from being boredom. Cinematography was enthralling. The film has been shot in amazing parts of the world. Coming to performances , Saif Ali Khan is decent but not effective. Even Kareena was just about okay. Music is very nice with "Pungi" song being the best among others.

Overall , I was not satisfied with the end result. After making this film for 2 years , the team should have focused more on script and direction rather than spending huge amount of money on the production. Disappointing- 2/5

Stylish actors,wonderful locations,lots of side characters,wayward storyline all these sum up the context of Agent Vinod.Mark,I used only two positive things,which are actually the fairly good things in the movie,whereas the reason you should avoid it,is at the behest of the negative points.The movie seems as if cut-by-cut summary of 14 different movies(because of 14 different locations) with none of them providing apt understanding of the storyline and you end up asking yourself-"What was that?","Who was that?","Why was that?". Saif Ali Khan and Kareena Kapoor did justice to their character still the storyline & some poor editing made a mess of the movie.Songs were good still not upto the mark. All in all Agent Vinod is a stylish,sleek movie beyond a good and sensible storyline.If you find STYLE dominating SUBSTANCE as good,go for it,else its far far better to avoid it.

One of my friends said that Agent Vinod is the remake of old Agent Vinod (Available on YouTube). I was not convinced, but when I came out of the theater I started believing it. Really? Sriram Raghavan? After Ek Hasina Thi and Johny Gaddar, Agent Vinod? I still can't believe that Saif and Sriram come up with this utterly disorganized film.

Agent Vinod is something that Saif wanted to do with Kurbaan,(Thank god they haven't repeated any love making act, may be Saif wanted to concentrate more on acting skills.) The main problem of the film is screenplay. Screenplay throws out sequences without any explanation.You can't connect with this film. It feels like writers were stoned and when they were high they started writing Agent Vinod. This film shows you glimpse of 12 or more countries with irrelevant characters that supposed to be most wanted criminals.Every character is flat and shallow. I can't even say 'underwritten'. There are ton of questions that could really make you sick and dizzy. Couple of dialogues is witty but you heard it in first trailer itself. Sriram tried different things like to relate the sequence with Charlie Chaplin's films and to synchronies the fight sequence with silent song but it doesn't hold your attention because your mind continuously tries to figure out what the hell is going on.

Too many characters but no one gets enough time to act. Saif is confused, he tries to carry the film but the plot (?) is so weak that I would have watched Don 2 again. Why the hell did editor freeze some random frames? To make an impression on viewer's mind?

The good thing about agent Vinod is that it's not in 3D. This is not an action movie, it just a movie where someone kills someone, that's it. The most idiotic thing about the film is that a bullet is sufficient to kill Vinod but then, again we have to face lame action moves. Why was there Rajat Kapoor and Gulshan Grover? They come and go, they do nothing.But why did even writers come up with those characters.

Agent Vinod is not an intelligent, smart film and it doesn't come up with anything new. This spy has license to boredom.