Players

Stylish and fast-paced, a few good performances could have turned this into a decent Bollywood job

It’s a strange country we live in. We do an Italian Job in the Government and an Indian Job in the movies. Even though Players is an ‘official’ re-make of The Italian Job, this film is indigenous. It has Indo-Russian fraternity, with Indian crooks offloading bullion from a Russian train. It has Johnny Lever with a New Zealander wife who can perform Satyanarayan puja. It has Bipasha Basu exhibiting the greatest bod this side of the Suez Canal. Maybe even that side.
Charlie (Abhishek Bachchan) is the lead player. Inspired by Victor (Vinod Khanna), his mentor, now in an Indian prison, he meticulously plans a heist on a train from Russia to Romania. His colleagues are ‘illusionist’ Ronnie (Bobby Deol), ‘hacker’ Spider (Neil Nitin Mukesh), ‘machinist’ Riya (Bipasha Basu), make-up artist Sunny (Omi Vaidya) and deaf handyman Bilal (Sikander Kher). This 45-minute heist sequence is the slickest part of the film, and, in terms of action and production values, is up there with the best.

It is even worth, I dare say, the price of a ticket.

The rest of the movie is set at the same breakneck pace, but doesn’t work because it is an entirely new plot. Players suddenly turns into two films with the same cast, strung back to back. The second movie, set in New Zealand, is about betrayal.

Spider, the loyal player of the first,  is now the villain. Heist number two is planned and executed meticulously, but this one is a bit of a dud. Viewer fatigue sets in, and if it weren’t for Omi Vaidya’s hilariously affected Hindi, Bipasha’s nut-brown skin tone and Johnny Lever’s histrionics, we would all get ‘Economy Class Syndrome’, the kind you get sitting cramped on long-haul flights.

Yet,  right through, Players is a classy looking film. A better structured script, a stand-out performance or two, and you could have had a decent Bollywood Job.

Abhishek BachchanheistThe Italian Job