Director duo Abbas-Mustan’s dismal streak, that began with ‘Tarzan’ the wonder car, continues through Aitraaz, 36 China Town, Naqaab and now, RACE. This one was more promising than the rest and by the looks of it, the movie seemed like an edge of the seat action thriller with twists and turns in the plot which had a multi-star cast.

     Saif Khan playing the lead as a horse stable owner whose hobby is betting on his horses is a risk taker in life. Saif plays this role very well with the right amount of seriousness. Akshaye Khanna’s role is a repetition for him from Humraaz and Naqaab and therefore, his character fails to impress us with the lack of novelty. Bipasha looks hotter than a Porsche and Katrina is stunning as well. Anil Kapoor, who comes in pretty late in the movie provides the humour in the film but the characterization is again repetitive and the talents of all these fine actors is wasted in a film that has little apart from the constant twists in the plot, brief action sequences which have already appeared in previews, couple of good songs and a whole lot of incredible screenplay.

     Adding twists to surprise the audience is something the director duo have excelled at in the past with films like Khiladi, Baazigar, Soldier, Baadshah, Ajnabee and Humraaz. What these films had in common was a well balanced plot that had intricate transition from humour to seriousness that eventually made sense. Some of these films were just serious throughout with Johnny Lever providing the much needed breaks. The duo strayed from this approach in their film making in RACE. While the first half of RACE is typical of an Abbas-Mustan thriller, the rest of the film is an unblended mixture of humour, seriousness, confusion and incredulity. Anil Kapoor’s entry would bring hope to the viewer who would be looking forward to some more thrill and intensity but he turns out to be the show stopper. The flawed characterization by Abbas Mustan leave Anil Kapoor with fruits, sleazy dialogues, a hot secretary and an incomprehensible talent of drawing conclusions from the events. Mind you, that nothing is justified here. The process of investigation which sometimes becomes the most interesting part of a film is completely ignored here and we see Anil Kapoor sniffing trouble and suspicion just because he ‘thinks’ so…..

     Nevertheless, there are a few aspects that make the audience sit through the film’s duration. Notably, the music is good. Atif Aslam’s Pehli nazar is already the superhit of the year while the title track is a rocking rendition. The film has a few dialogues that say more than what the actor has just said. We have not seen this happen in the duo’s films in a long time.
     Abbas Mustan may have evolved in their action sequences but we long for their directional talents that gave us Khiladi and Baazigar. For years, their films have been based on thin plot lines with only the insurance policy or father’s will as the subject. They are better off copying Hollywood because that would atleast bring films such as Baadshah and Khiladi again. Abbas Mustan need to take a break, watch Hollywood films for one full year and come back with a film that is more convincing and with more of Johnny Lever in it. For now, RACE leaves us with nothing Atif Aslam’s melody and the rocking title track.

-     6.35 on a scale of 1-10.

Plot Revealed In The Review:	Somewhat revealed
Best to watch with:	Friends
Movie Genre:	Thriller/Suspense
Best part in the movie:	Music