Review of Dhoom 2 (2006) by Geoffrey K — 16 Nov 2018

Dhoom 2 is a Bollywood action thriller film, starring a star-studded cast of Hrithik Roshan, Uday Chopra, Abishek Bachan, Aishayan Rai, and Bipasha Basu. The protagonist of the film, Mr. A (Hrithik Roshan) is a highly skilled internationally renowned thief. From the onset, the cleverness and skill of "A" is demonstrated. The film begins with Mr. "A", an internationally renowned criminal, stealing the crown of England from a heavily secured train through disguise. This thievery triggers the events of the movie by causing officers Ali Khan (Uday Chopra) and Jai Dixit (Abhishek Bachchan) to be assigned to investigate the case. Although Mr. "A" is painted as a protagonist, it is never really clear who the clear cut "villians" are in the movie. The officers serve as opposing forces to Mr. A, yet, even the "officers" are painted as good guys through their goofiness and dialogue. This is marked contrast from traditional Bollywood "villians". As Rosie Thomas writes, Hindi "screen villians represent the antithesis of all that is valued in the moral order". It is evident though that this is not the case with the officers- we certainly sympathize with Jai Dixit for having to deal with the moodiness of his pregnant wife.

In watching the movie, the viewer must be cognizant of the intended Bollywood audience. Those familiar with Western movies will have a hard time adjusting to the theatrics and length of Dhoom 2. At no point in the movie does Dhoom 2 try to maintain realism. In a similiar vein to Bollywood movies such as Kabhie Kushie Kabhi Gham, the film accepts and even embraces its silliness with overly cheesy lines ("Are you like....checking me out?") and impossible human feats. Viewers must maintain a suspension of disbelief for the duration of the film, and not judge the movie for its lack of realism. The choreography thus must be judged through different lenses. Through our Western lenses, the action and fight scenes might seem poorly executed, but the cheesy fight scenes are intentional by adding to the overall goofiness of Dhoom 2.

More damning however is the lack of sophisticaion present through the movie. Unlike other silly Bollywood movies that either present a moral lesson or address a societal issue, Dhoom 2's sole mission is to sastify a viewer's primal desire for fast-paced action and attractive people. For a movie with such a star-studded cast, the lack of any redeeming intellectual qualities is a clear waste of talent. Although it is clearly evident the intended audience is different than say for example, that of Mother India, movies such as Main Hoon Na have shown that even cheesy action movies can be infused with sophistication and depth. Ultimately, this lack of sophistication manifests in a feeling of emptiness after 2 hours and 32 minutes of mindless watching. After watching, one must think to themselves if those 2 hours and 32 minutes could've been better spent doing something else.