WCRC Brands Illustrated up till 15 October | Seite 71

Directed By: Kabir Khan Produced by: Sajid Nadiadwala, Siddharth Roy Kapur, Mohammed Zeeshan Ayyub, Sabyasachi Chakrabarty, Sohaila Kapur Music by: Pritam Chakraborty (songs), Julius Packiam (background score) Written by: Kabir Khan, Kausar Munir Cinematography: Aseem Mishra Duration: 2 hours 28 minutes PHANTOM W ith Bajrangi Bhaijaan proving to be one of all time blockbusters, it becomes absolutely needless to sayy that all eyes were again on director Kabir Khan and hiss latest film PHANTOM. With expectations flying sky-high, Phantom tom m is an adaptation of journalist-turned-author S.Hussain Zaidi’s bestt seller ‘Mumbai Avengers’. The film mirrors the prickly issue e off cross-border terrorism, which has affected India for decades now. ow.. As Kabir Khan has tackled the subject of global terrorism issue sue e in his earlier releases including Kabul Express, New York and d Ek Tha Tiger, his choice of presenting this dramatic tale of avenge e on n the screen seems rational. PLOT: The story revolves around Daniyal Khan, a dishonoured Army rmyy man and unfolds with his journey across countries to seek justice stice as a ‘Phantom’ agent recruited by RAW. A few years after the Mumbai’s 26/11 attack, when the government and security urity agencies are still helpless for not being able to get hold of the masterminds, the nation still vulnerable, and another infiltrator atorr being caught with plans to attack the country, the RAW plans anss for an avenge. Daniyal who is a part of this mission gets to meett Nawaz Mistry (Katrina Kaif), who works for a security agency. It iss during this journey he realizes that there is always a price to payy and with this mission, the price was very personal. PERFORMANCE : Indian can still relate to the inexplicable pains the horrendous ouss attacks of 26/11 gave to the entire nation. The film opens with Genre: Drama, Action, Thriller these heart wrenching visuals from Mumbai and then the tale of avenge takes over with the sole aim to wipe off every perpetrator behind the attacks. The choice of the story was fair enough and had the elements that could be projected on the screen, but somewhere the potential script appeared weaker. The mission itself lacked confidentiality and thus, at one point everything seemed so obvious and predictable, and it is where the script loses its grip. The pace of the story is decent enough with a mix of drama, facts, fiction and action. The movie being shot across various locations goes well with the demands of the script. While the first half was more engaging, the second half was barely saved by the climax. PHANTOM overall is a movie that can be avoided. Its overly patriotic unrealistic treatment gets boring and untimely Katrina Kaif was probably a choice for the script only as a glamor quotient for her flattering demeanor. She looks pretty throughout the movie. Zeeshan Ayyub was a good watch DECREE: Though the film doesn’t have the typical Bollywood song-dance routine or humour, it runs high on patriotism. It plays on the anger and condemnation that every Indian has over the attacks of 26/11 on Mumbai. The film offers a hypothetical solution to the terror menace and about bringing these terrorists responsible for Mumbai attacks to justice. Highly fictitious considering nothing of it has anywhere near been attempted in real life. Overall execution is slow.Worth watching for cinematography and style. Feedback@brands-illustrated.com 71