JOIN USHindi (U/A)
Rating: Average
Casting: Saif Ali Khan, Kareena Kapoor
Director: Sriram Raghavan
Saif Ali Khan is a RAW man on a mission to defuse a nuke bomb in a suitcase, which can be activated only with the help of Omar Khayyam’s Rubaiyat! Talk of poetic malpractice.
The Indian Bond -- with a bit of Bourne in him -- gets his share of bang-bangs and babes (but he’s never in bed with one). Sorry, no martinis too. Only his wit his dry.
So, when the Latvian police take him to be questioned, he says they are in queue as many other nations are hot on his heels.
The super-spy spews another gem as he slurps down his spaghetti: kuch pane ke liye kuch khana padta hein.
The wit, the style, the slick action... everything would have worked wonderfully had our agent also had a plot. Seems director Sriram Raghavan had the gunpowder, but forgot to light it.
Every character carries a sub-plot with him/her, and the confusion goes global when our hero decides to travel the world on the bomb trail. From the Desert of Death in Afghanistan to Russia, Morocco, Somalia, Latvia, Pakistan, and finally to India, Saif keeps laying traps for arms dealers, drug lords and some rogue ISI elements.
And as he goes about decoding a certain “242”, he meets Kareena Kapoor -- a double-crossing Pak agent who, Agent Vinod discovers, can’t kill anyone because her blue eyes can’t be that of a killer!
So, Ms Innocent teams up with Mr Know-All in his future exploits.
Saif has the swagger and he sparkles as India’s best spy till date. The movie? Well, there is nothing high-octane here to lift it. Thud.