Review: ‘Players’ is a slick, fast paced thriller!

Zeenews Bureau Mumbai: A Bollywood remake of F Gary Gray’s heist film - ‘The Italian Job’ (2003), Abbas Mustan’s ‘Players’ is a slick, fast paced and racy thriller. Starring Abhishek Bachchan, Neil Nitin Mukesh, Bipasha Basu, Sonam Kapoor, Bobby Deol, Omi Vaidya, Sikander Kher, Johnny Lever and Vinod Khanna, ‘Players’ is all about a high profile heist carried out by a team of daredevil robbers. It all starts when Charlie Mascarenhas’ (Abhishek Bachchan) friend Raj (Aftab Shivdasani) discloses a possibility of heist when gold worth ten thousand crore would be transported from Russia to Romania. Together with Riya (Bipasha Basu), an expert machinist, Charlie gathers a band of professionals: Victor Braganza (Vinod Khanna), the head of the gang, Bilal Bashir (Sikander Kher), an explosive expert, Ronny (Bobby Deol), a magician, and Sunny Mehra (Omi Vaidya), ace make-up artist. In order to keep themselves abreast with the latest technology, the team is incomplete without a hacker. And here comes Spider (Neil Nitin Mukesh), who is inducted in the team of robbers by Victor’s daughter Naina (Sonam Kapoor). From now onwards, what follows is a game of one-upmanship, where each member has his own plans in this wild chase. ‘Players’ is a razor-sharp flick with scintillating cinematography by Ravi Yadav that takes you through breathtaking locales of Amsterdam, Siberia and New Zealand, complete with James Bond style adrenaline rushing action sequences – high speed car chases, lot of aerial scenes, heist on the train and et al. Yet, despite all the gloss, the film lacks emotions. Abhishek appears to play ‘Dhoom’ inspector with corny dialogues and weak characterisation. Neil delivers a good performance. Omi Vaidya is frustrating sometimes with his ‘3 Idiots’ accent. Sonam and Bipasha look glamorous and Bobby is terribly wasted. In terms of background score, for the first time in Abbas Mustan film, the music appears weak. Technically the film is brilliant, but when it comes to drama and emotions, the film falls flat on its face. In comparison to ‘The Italian Job’, ‘Players’ is long and overstretched. Overall, it’s a good one time watch and as far as Box Office goes, it’s not a bad start for New Year. Ratings: Three cheers for this one!