The Shootout At Lokhandwala team is back with Mission Istanbul. Director Apoorva Lakhia directs this film on terrorism. Vivek Oberoi, Zayed Khan, Nikitin Dheer (of Jodha Akbar fame) and Shabbir Ahluwalia form the lead cast. Suniel Shetty, Shriya Saran and Abhishek Bachchan have special appearances. Can the makers better their previous effort?
Mission Istanbul is about Vikas Sagar (Zayed Khan) one of the best journalist from India, who accepts a 3 month assignment with Al-Johara, an extremely controversial Instanbul-based news channel. The assignment comes at a time when Vikas, undergoing divorce with his wife Anjali (Shriya Saran), is at an all-time personal low. Once in Istanbul, Vikas meets Ghazni (Nikitan Dheer), the owner of Al-Johara and Owais Shah (Suniel Shetty), who heads the news channel.
Owais Shah is killed on Vikas’s first assignment in Afghanistan. Enter Rizwan Khan (Vivek Oberoi), a Turkish commando, who informs him that his life is in danger. How the Indian Journalist along with Rizwan manages to survive the battle against Ghazni forms the rest of the tale.
Mission Istanbul Review
Mission Istanbul is filled with good action and stunts but what the movie completely lacks is logic. Certain scenes are tough to digest and quite a few of them look silly. Two men take on the whole of Istanbul, well almost. They jump around like spiderman, take on 5 – 10 men at a time and usually survive without a scratch. The scenes involving a George Bush look-a-like looks stupid to say the least. And how does the hero pass the hand detection system? Quite simple, he rips both hands of a security personnel and conveniently uses it on the system, easy ain’t it? A frustrated villain smashes LCD Monitors left right and center. The second half drags, so much that you hardly care about the climax.
The 2 item numbers are filled with sufficient skin show to please the front benchers. Oh yeah there is Abhishek Bachchan in one of them, he tries hard to dance but fails as always. The background music is irritating and at times so loud that the dialogues are inaudible. The cinematography is good. Dialogues are over the top.
Coming to the performances I liked Shabbir Ahluwalia the most, with few good roles he can go a long way. Vivek Oberoi is strangely not in form in a role that perfectly suited his style of acting. Zayed Khan can’t act to save his life! Nikitin Dheer, the villain of Jodhaa Akbar, needs to work on his dialogue delivery. It’s high time Shriya Saran gets a chance in meatier roles. She was wasted in Awarapan and here she hardly has a 10 minute role. Suniel Shetty is okay in a special appearance. Shweta Bhardwaj is hot but expressionless throughout.
Overall, Mission Istanbul is strictly for action lovers. Others don’t expect much. Performances are weak and so is the script. Don’t expect much at the box-office. Flop!
Rating: 
1 and a half stars for Mission Istanbul
Other notes – The Mission Istanbul Runtime is around 2 hours 35 mins. Also, the trailer of Ekta Kapoor’s C kkompany was screened. It looks like yet another mindless comedy; Tusshar Kapoor and Mithun Chakraborty looked funny. The movie releases on August 22nd. Be sure to check out the trailer during the interval, if you decide to watch Mission Istanbul.
How did you like the Apoorva Lakhia presentation Mission Istanbul? Drop in your votes below.
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July 25th, 2008 at 6:11 pm
Good Review of Mission Istanbul… Ill watch it maybe as a comedy
Your review was funny hehe :D Booked tickets for the night show cant do much now :( I thought it would be good watch like Shoot out but seems like a disaster and i have already wasted my money
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July 25th, 2008 at 10:14 pm
ission Istanbul suffers from weak characterizations and a bad plot. It isolates the viewers from the thick of things. Strictly avoidable
read review at bollywoodtrends.blogspot.com
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July 25th, 2008 at 10:19 pm
From the trailer I could say it’s a full action movie, nice for men not for ladies. I liked the actor of Jodhaa Akbar, he got a serious face and perromed very well in his roll in JA. I just don’t understand what went wrong with Viviek Oberoi!! In his first movie “Saathiya” he was so good and everyone liked him, he just turned into a different character after his movie with Aishwariya Rai was a flop, and after the breakup with her!
I thought, after watching Saathiya & Company ( his best movies and maybe Shootout at Lockhanwala which I didn’t see yet) that Viviek Oberoi will be a super star one day but he dissapointed me while watching “Kisna” which his acting was poor, but the movie was good although it was a flop I guess.
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July 25th, 2008 at 11:39 pm
Vivek Oberoi has been disappointing me too. I just watched the movie it is very bad :( :( wasted my money
He was very good in his first few movies but then he has always been getting negative reviews for all his performances. In shootout he was great but it didnt help his career.. he won an award at the IIFA for his great performance
In Mission Istanbul he was very very average… great sometimes but not very consistent with his expressions. He also overacted sometimes.
Zayed Khan is a big let down i really thought this guy would achieve greater heights after Main Hoon Na but he has just fallen apart after it
I agree with the review fully dont waste your time on this mission turkey
PS - I really like the comments on this site and the site and user reviews toooo
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July 26th, 2008 at 5:07 am
Horrible movie. Disgusting pathetic. Who are those idiots who voted the movie 5 stars?
It doesn’t even deserve 1
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July 26th, 2008 at 7:30 am
Mission Superflop!!! Before watching this I thought of getting another movie in the line of JA, Race, Jannat & JTYJN. Bt its worse to declare a hit. Never watch it if u dnt want to waste ur time & money.
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July 26th, 2008 at 9:45 am
Mission Instanbul comes under those category of pictures whose trailers are enough to give u a head-ache.
No good actor, no script, n neither the music(As its of Anu Malik n its not copied thats why)
I can’t think of anything that can attract the people in the theatres.
I have watched its trailers n read the comments here n thats enough for me to make a very wise decision that to not to waste money n time for this.
Its better watching Jaane Tu Ya Jaane Na or even Kismat Konnection again instead of this crab.
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July 26th, 2008 at 5:58 pm
very noisy irritating,indigestible,useless actor and actress movie…… dont watch
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July 26th, 2008 at 6:48 pm
He was very good in his first few movies but then he has always been getting negative reviews for all his performances. In shootout he was great but it didnt help his career.. he won an award at the IIFA for his gr I have watched its trailers n read the comments here n thats enough for me to make a very wise decision that to not to waste money n time for this.
eat performance is rockig
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July 27th, 2008 at 11:36 am
i love you ishita sharma
dil dosti etc faame girl my love
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July 28th, 2008 at 10:34 pm
Shriya saran is very hot and sexy.
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July 31st, 2008 at 6:02 am
bollywood still sucks and can NEVER ever compete with hollywood.lack of imagination,talent and never stick to the indian culture.indians,chinese,russians think they are the best but in fact they are cunts.despite critisizing USA for everything and calling them dumb,at least learn to appreciate their cinema since it attracts worldwide audience.hollywood still continues to entertain us with some classic movies this year like-THE DARK KNIGHT,IRON MAN,MAMMA MIA etc.
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July 31st, 2008 at 3:05 pm
movie is good for action lovers and not for those who like love stories like stupid senseless jaane tu..atleast MI tels something about wats going around the world..specially after the attacks in b’lore n ahmd.
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August 2nd, 2008 at 11:37 pm
its completely bakwas .. Money waste.. i just went bcoz of vivek as he did well in shoot out at lokhandwala.. but again he disappointed us …. but dont worry vivek u hav lots of guts u will reach d sky.. but this movie is complete failure ………………………………………………………………………dont watch plz
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August 6th, 2008 at 12:31 pm
Noiw u have said it Bunty, and from your name I can say that you are Indian, so why didn’t others attack u ’cause u didn’t like JT?! Many people didn’t like it and wrote their comments about it. What I think that the majority who loved JT and paid their money watching it twice or thrice or ten times don’t make the movie (good) it’s only because the majority r really(stupid!) and love some crap movies! and whenever we write a comment praising a good movie they answer the following: The movie was a flop.. or this movie is a hit.. or they say: The public says so.. but the question is : WHO R THE PUBLIC?? THE PUBULIC R U, ME & THEY. we r the one who upgrade or downgrade any movie.. we are the one who pay to watch some crap and make them win at the box office.. we r the one who murder any good movie and make it a flop.. we r the public and not some aliens living in on our lands!!
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August 7th, 2008 at 11:30 am
Harrison Ford: you named yourself with this name and it’s obviuous that u r deeply in love with H.wood movies. Well let me tell u one thing.. Bollywood makes good and bad and Hollywood too.. they make good and bad, and one question: what did u love about “the Dark Night”? It was a very boring movie, I was really tortured while watching it and had to wait while it finishes ’cause of other members who accompanied me to watch this movie, a repeated script, similar to Superman, Spiderman. A bad guy threats others, batman wants to help, 21/2 hour spending watching all that!! yes.. the direction and production was good but (no story at all) and why this roll ( as a bad guy) was given to Heath Ledger, I still don’t get it!!
U r praising Hollywood and lately they r doing very stupid silly horror movies, all crap ( Bhoot & Darana Mana Hai) these 2 Bollywood horror movies were much better in direction.
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September 15th, 2008 at 1:43 pm
I saw this movie last night, the only good thing in the movie was Zayed Khan. His acting has been improved. He’ll continue in b.wood, but Vivek Oberoi.. he must 4get about acting and change his future plans, he has to leave bollywood ( even in this serious action movie, he couldn’t wipe the smile from his face and be serious according to his role!!).
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