Race Movie Review

Race Review

Introducing Race

Race directed by director duo Abbas – Mustan is a fast paced action thriller. Abbas and Mastan are known for films like Khiladi (Akshay Kumar), Baazigar (Shahrukh Khan), Humraaz and many more. Their forte is the thriller genre. After duds like 36 China Town and Naqaab, they are back with a powerful starcast consisting of Saif Ali Khan, Katrina Kaif, Akshaye Khanna, Bipasha Basu, Anil Kapoor and Sameera Reddy. The hype over the past few weeks has been immense. Does it live upto the expectations?

Race Story

Race is a story of two brothers Ranvir Singh (Saif Ali Khan) and Rajeev Singh (Akshay Khanna) – one of them plays to win, while the other one plays to defeat. Set against the high-flying social fabric of modern South Africa, it is also about betrayal and greed, intrigue and revenge.

Ranvir and Rajeev are biggest bookies in the horse racing circuit. Ranvir is ignorant of the fact that his personal secretary Sophia (Katrina Kaif) is head-over-heals in love with him and falls for Sophia (Bipasha Basu), an Indian Model. Ranvir and Shaina share a good rapport but fate unites her with Rajeev, a chronic alcoholic.

Being high all the time, Rajeev fails to connect well with his wife Shaina. And in a moment of truth Ranvir and Shaina come close to each other and an affair begins. All hell is broken loose when Rajeev suspects his wife of double crossing.

A Murder is committed.

Robert. D. Costa (R.D) (Anil Kapoor), a detective is assigned to find the truth behind this murder and arrest the culprit. The clever R.D is assisted by Mini (Sameera Reddy), a sexy but dumb girl.

Who is the culprit? What is the motive? The story unfolds itself slowly in a series of unexpected twists and turns and a nail-biting climax.

Race Review

What works for Race is that you can never predict exactly whats gonna happen next. Just when you think, this could be the last twist in the tale, it surprises you with another twist. There is almost a twist in every reel!

Directors Abbas – Mastan deserve credit for their execution, they succeed in holding your attention throughout the movie. The direction is complimented by the screenplay although the impact would have been much better had the story been more convincing. With so many twists and turns, the viewer after a certain point could get confused as to whose with who. Also it gets a little tedious to sit through.

As far as the editing is concerned two songs can be easily chopped off for better impact. The music is brilliant, Pehli Nazar Mein stands out. Dialogues are superb. Cinematography brilliant!

Race Performances

Saif Ali Khan delivers a powerful performance. His expressions, intensity are top notch. Saif has come a long way in the last few years, undoubtedly one of the most under-rated actors in Bollywood today.

Akshaye Khanna always manages to stand out in Abbas-Mastan movies, no different in Race. He is superb.

Anil Kapoor provides some much needed comic relief in the second half. As RD, who keeps eating a different fruit each time, he rocks. Some of his dialogues are hilarious. Some of his dialogues are hilarious.

Amongst the girls, Sameera Reddy stands out in a short but sweet role. As a dumb girl, her chemistry with Anil Kapoor is great.

Bipasha Basu is HOT especially in the song Allah Duhai Hai. Performance-wise Bipasha is good. Katrina Kaif looks gorgeous, but in the acting department strictly average. She needs to work on her dialogue delivery.

Race Verdict

Overall, Race is a well made thriller and delivers what it promises. Great music, good performances, high on style, lots of action, twist and turns every 20 mins. What more could you ask for?

At the box-office, Race has loads of things in its favour. It’s also the first major release since Jodha Akbar, which released more than a month back. With a wide release (700+ prints in India), the movie should easily recover its investment in two weeks.

Rating: ★★★½☆ Three and half stars (Worth a watch)

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53 Comments

  • Never seeen such a beautiful film i think shahrukh khan will gradually loose his status >> he cheap shahrukh khan his fface is like a sweeper rce is more brilliant than OSO

  • OK, I’m sure this movie is going to do great business, because of the star cast and the songs and the treatment of the film, but, man, was it a dud!

    Akshaye KHnnna is annoying from the get go, and there’s something about him you cant trust as soon as the movie begins that totally ruins the twist when he has a discussion with bipasha.Maybe its the dead cat on his head, so the first drawback of the movie is casting, why cast an annoying actor with fake hair when there are so many actors in india, after all race is a stylised movie and a more pleasant looking cast would have made it only better. Anil Kapoor is annoying too, especially when he is constantly hitting on a woman half his age, probably around the age of his daughter sonam, and asking her to hold his ‘kela’. how classy can you get?
    The twists and turns remind you of Naqaab, and with every twist its kind of clear that the next twist will turn the tables in favour of the other guy, so in that way its predictable. IN the last few minutes, i was praying, just for the sake of holding on t my sanity ,’please god, please dont let them come back from the dead again’. Which only happened because they were out of time otherwise im sure they would have kept on twisting the tale.

    I will give this movie 10 points for music
    6 points for acting
    5 points for direction
    9 points for action
    5 points for story and screenplay

    What is sad is that if they ha done some things differently it could have been a really god movie. Nonetheles, I know every one will want to see this movie, and i did too so i cant blame you. Although if you’re over 20 years of age and love the movie then you should have serious concerns regarding your IQ. A personal shoutout to Akshaye Khanna: Move over and let real talented indians act, especially those whose daddys werent famous. To Anil Kapoor: Grow up and stop dying your hair, surely your 60 years in this wourld must have taught you something you can pass on to coming generation besides vulgar sex jokes and to katrina kaif: I love you babe: but you need to take some acting classes.

  • I like the story and performances of Race. Abbas Mustan duo did a very good job. Everyone is good but Akshaye Khanna is outstanding as always. His acting is very captivating and mature as a villain. Akshoo has the most effective role like always. Akshaye Khanna and Katrina Kaif make a very good pair onscreen.

  • NO HONOUR AMONG THIEVES!

    I want all of you to please think carefully about this…

    In the film Race, each and every character was NEGATIVE!

    Saif Ali Khan MURDERED his jockey and DESTROYED his business rival in an unethical and very underhanded manner.

    Katrina and Bipasha were openly gold-diggers.

    Akshay Khanna was an out and out rogue.

    And finally, Anil turned out to be a corrupt cop.

    So no matter how entertaining the film was, with twists and turns and thrills, there was absence of basic human goodness [Dharm] and that kind of storyline is a no-no, especially for our country whose very foundations are built on dharm. This film, in an indirect way, sends a very wrong message to our youth, to whom I appeal that it is NOT OK to be like Saif, Akshay, Anil, Katrina and Bipasha in this film.
    At least in films like Dhoom 2, there was a transformation from evil to good in the end. Hrithik gave up his thieving ways and decided to lead a life of honour. Also in Dhoom 1, the rogue [John] rode off a cliff, ended his life and lost all his loot. This is the reason why I say that Race is damaging to our reputation. Our film industry does have a moral responsibility which it is dismally failing to keep up.
    So fans of Race, no offense, but wake up and think very carefully over what I am saying…

  • Race is one of the best films of the year. Akshaye Khanna is the best villain. Saif Ali Khan delivers a power packed performance as an intense elder brother and shrewd businessman. But, it’s Akshaye Khanna who steals the show. So, performance-wise it’s Akshaye Khanna who is the best in his negative avatar. He is outstanding as an actor in negative role.

  • Good movie but not anywhere nearing the perfectionist “Johnny Gaddar”. Guys check this movie out and you will forget race. Greatest bollywood Suspense thriller movie till date

  • WOW!!!! This is a fantastic thriller movie i like it very much and say to all those guys who didn’t watch this movie until yet i advice them to watch this movie if they haven’t see a best movie and to mister vivek i said that pleaze change your mind you are thinking wrong very very wrong its not a too bad movie that you think u r mad or u haven’t watch the movie i think u only watch its trailer i hope that now u change your mind so any ways this is a gorgeous movie pleaze pleaze pleaze pleaze change your mind those who think like mister vivek.

  • vivek..buddy i agree wid ya…my complimentz.

    da movie was 2 b honest not all dat hot after all da hype dat was created.
    da twists and turns were completely mind-boggling…dere was no clear outline 2 da plot…i mean guyz do u mind telling me wat da hell did u actually learned frm it?apart frm diz dat if u r going 2 kill sum1 den lets just get on wid it anyway instead of shooting evil lookz and delivering trying-sooo-hard-2-sound-kool-bt-falling-short-ov-it-by-a-mile every 2 secondz?…PUH-LEASE!

    and a wrd 2 bipasha aka bips: honey if u love 2 show ov ur body soo much save it 4 a film dats worth it.

    sheesh.

  • I think that Akshaye Khanna deserves to win best actor in a negative role for Race this year. He acted brilliantly. excellent performance.

  • i think the film was same as the others i mean it wasn’t different from others as it was told by the director in the interview my point of view “IT SUCKED” they could do better as in the actors and the actress could not find them selves or couldn’t fit themselves properly in the position they were given.

  • Woo…ooo i really appreciate d actors & actresses who acted in race. D film is very gud and watchin it right now 4 d second time tell dem to keep it up i luv dem.tanks

  • plz i didnt watch the film and it’s not possible for me.let me know what happened at the last and akshay got his wife back or not?????????
    plzzzzzzzz

  • Wow,

    I won’t lie, I watched Race after reading the review on this site – despite everything telling me it was going to be a bad movie. My gut instinct was right, I really don’t understand how you can call this a worthwhile thriller at all.

    ANY movie, in which the dialogue requires the actors to explain a supposed “twist” or “surprise” at every turn will eventually collapse. The special effects were a joke – and with the sheer amount of youtube, at-home cinematographers producing quality footage, it is amazing to me that no one thought to revamp or reshoot scenes (a rocket launching a car upside down, a car randomly defying physics and doing flips in the air when hit straight on, etc.).

    The only worthwhile moments were Anil Kapoor’s role and the three actresses that graced the screen. Unfortunately, they were not worth the minutes I have forever lost on this terrible movie. I hope one day Bollywood prevents such crap from hitting the big screen. I also blame the actors, who were willing to take on such a dud of a movie – unless they received the script only after signing a contract? Either way, I hope that someday Bollywood will respect quality scripts and acting, and throw away with trash like this. There is so much beauty in our country and history, yet we are unable to produce quality films the way the Chinese and Japanese have done.

    Long live the indie Hindi film niche – at least there one can find creativity and beauty.

    Later,
    M

    P.S. – Have some respect for you readers and be a true critic of film – this movie was a dud and you should have warned us.

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