Style without Smart. Review on Dus

Dus is a very stylish film, but style that is very self-conscious and aggravating. When I watch a Bollywood action film, such as Qayamat, I do not expect intelligence, I watch it for the thrills of the action. Undoubtably, action is not Bollywood's forte and is outshone by the average action in American, Hong Kong, South Korean even in our own South Indian Tamil and Telugu films. However, films like Qayamat and Zameen that released earlier narrowed the technical gap, but it appears the latest and apparently most advanced, Dus, has widened it again. The much hyped action of Dus with all generosity is plain mediocre.

This is just your average contemporary Bollywood action film with excessive use of matrix-inspired slow motion and wire scenes insipidly executed. The car chase and crash scenes are some of the most dull I've seen and the stunts are lacklustre. The CG explosions, ironically executed by a Hollywood SFX team look tacky and the CG plane scene in the climax is faux. The falseness of this is even intensified when we see the actors walk away from explosions slowly, which is obviously a stylistic statement, but looks bad.

The action is made even worse, much like with the entire film, with extremely irritating amateur video effects such as the flash cuts, the slow mo and fast mo transitions and the jump cuts and loud sound effects. These little annoying MTV gimmicks are very disconcerting and almost render the film unwatchable.

The most severest criticism one can level at an action film is - it's boring and Dus is boring. There is not much story(or stunts for that matter) plot holes abound and the characters are carticatures. Many of the characters and their relationships in this film are contrived, such as Esha Deol's sudden romance with Abhishek Bachchan.

The performances are ordinary, with Zayed Khan being the worst of the lot and only the main villain, the actor who essays Jambwal actually putting in a sincere performance. The only positive about this film is the cinematography and the digital grading. This film reminded me a lot of Zameen, which was also an action film with no substance, but Zameen had superior action. This definitely isn't the best action or the best action film in Bollywood. Even Dhoom was better.

The songs slightly uplift the film, with Deedar Re being the best picturized. The fast paced Dus Bahne is used in the title sequence and leaves a lot to be desired.