Drona is not a fantasy-film. It's a nightmare!. Review on Drona

Spoiler Alert!

Aditya (Abhishek Bachchan) lives in Prague with a rowdy, horrendously dressed aunt (Navneet Nishan in a fleeting appearance) who gains great pleasure in treating him badly and referring to him as a ‘free servant’ The only thing Aditya can talk to is a bi-lingual blue rose petal that wafts in at will. It’s supposed to be a fantasy film so…

What poor overweight and unkempt Aditya really needs is a hot bath, a shave and haircut, but along comes Sonia (Priyanka Chopra) dressed way too outlandishly for a body guard. Though, with Rapunzel tresses, flowing, whimsical outfits of chiffon and brocade, a wonder bra-enhanced cleavage, way too much eye-make up and a strange bandana it’s she who is more likely to need a bodyguard. It’s supposed to be a fantasy film so…

So, Sonia comes zipping in a yellow beemer, whips out 2 tiny daggers and slays the 6 beefy men who have attacked Aditya with a poisoned dart via a pea shooter, no less.

Aditya comes to in a darkened room that has multiple ugh-shots, sorry, mug-shots of him plastered all over, while the bodyguard has morphed into an item girl and is mutinously writhing and dancing in skimpy clothing to the only song of the film ‘Oopja’ in a garage above the darkened room. It’s supposed to be a fantasy film so…

Item number over, a staircase lowers Sonia, who is thankfully back in the bodyguard groove and costume, into the darkened room to explain to Aditya that he is no ordinary mortal but Drona. When he doesn’t get it (I wonder if excess fat can clog the brain, along with the arteries too?) there is another lengthy explanation about Amrit (the elixir of life) being guarded from the Asur’s (demons/evil men) who have been chasing it for centuries, so that they could drink it and gain immortality to rein havoc on the world. And Drona and his descendents are the one who guard it. It’s supposed to be a fantasy film so…

The Asur in question here is Riz Raizada (K K ) a man with eye-sore inducing dressing sense who is a magician and thirsting for the Amrit.

Aditya snaps on a kitschy bracelet, realizes his power and demonstrates it by uprooting a huge iron gate and almost transforms into Drona, minus the gold sequined outfit. To get which he has to travel to Rajasthan after Sonia informs him he is actually a prince and has a real mother who is waiting for him.

An emotionless Aditya is reunited with his equally blank mother (Jaya Bachchan) and they barely exchange a couple of dialogue sheets before Riz  Raizada transforms the mother to stone. It’s supposed to be a fantasy film so…

To revive his mother Drona has to hand over the Amrit to Riz, which he decides to, after donning the badly tailored ivory and gold sequined outfit, engraved sword, kohl lined eyes and a botched up hair straightening job. And we watch a hammy Riz and a disinterested looking Drona fighting though tacky special-effects, clumsy airborne fight sequences and blackhead and pore enhancing close ups till good wins over bad and Drona slays Riz. Y.A.W.N

Abhishek was the wrong choice for a super hero. He looks sloppy, overweight and disinterested as he sleepwalks through a role that could have been a turning point in his career. Add to that is the P.A.T.H.E.T.I.C direction by Goldie Behl, where no shot has any impact.

The casting of KK as Riz Raizada has managed to erase all his previous brilliant performances so far, for me. He comes across as more of a comedian, and a really bad one at that, than a villain. Priyanka is okay and was obviously cast as eye-candy.

The story is novel, for a Hindi film, and had tremendous potential which could have been transformed into a super film under the guidance of a capable director and the casting of a more talented male lead

Drona is supposed to be a fantasy-film, but was nothing short of a nightmare!