Film Aazaan Review

Movie Review: 'Aazaan',

Star Cast: Sachiin Joshi, Candice Boucher, Sarita Choudhary, Aly Khan, Ravi Kissen and Aarya Babbar;

Director: Prashant Chadha;

Bioterrorism is amongst the most burning and alarming issues nowadays. The perils of biological war just cannot be ignored and what makes it even more dangerous is the fact that a lot of countries remain susceptible to it. AAZAAN undertakes a serious issue, a theme that has never been portrayed on the Hindi screen previously. Besides, director Prashant Chadha attempts to narrate the story in a style that's suggestive of the BOURNE series

There's a doomsday conspiracy happening, with the Ebola virus as its weapon of choice. It's a bio-terrorism plot against India, engineered by a lethal, faceless enemy, known just as the 'Doctor', who can apparently get past the best security in the world to orchestrate his moves. The Interpol and RAW are working assiduously to curb the spread of the fast-moving virus, and the only remedy they know of lies in the blood of a young girl in Scandinavia, who is obviously resistant to the virus. They must get to her before the Doctor and his men can. So, whom do they turn to? A short, stout, weak-voiced bodybuilder moonlighting as a soldier of fortune, called Aazaan.

An action thriller that isn't, Aazaan is a imaginary heroic that seems to solely be a launch vehicle for its lead 'star', Sachiin J Joshi. With a dull plot that seems quite impossible to follow, director Prashant Chadha's film hitches its wagon simply to its efficient cinematography and exotic locations, and hopes for the best, possibly praying that the audiences don't notice the folly of the plot.

The film is centered on the exploits of an Afghan terrorist turned Indian intelligence operative called Aazaan Khan, who has been called in by the RAW in the face of a lethal bio-terror attack underway against India. An enemy called the Doctor is readying to attack the nation with the lethal Ebola virus. The RAW discovers that there is a cure for the virus formulated by an Indian chemist somewhere in Scandinavia, who discovered a young girl naturally resistant to the virus. Now, before the Doctor can execute his plans, Aazaan needs to find and protect the girl long enough for India to get to her.

As far as plots go, Aazaan seems fine enough, logic not really a big factor in movies such as these. Already short on believability as a deadly counter-terrorism operative, Aazaan gets things more complicated by constantly delving in his past in Afghanistan, where he picked up the gun as a kid and massacred a whole family in front of his younger brother. One understands that Aazaan is haunted by his past actions, but one simply can't follow the way the movie keeps bringing it up. In fact, the way he talks of it, it seems that more than being haunted, Aazaan is distressingly obsessed with his past.

The film's focus is distorted. Director Prashant Chadha is completely taken up by the smoothness of his action choreography, his cinematography and the locales, than keeping his eyes on the story. Perhaps, it's only right, as the high-octane visuals seem to be the only real positive in this setup, populated as it is with a set of clumsy performances.

Debutant Sachiin Joshi knows his limits as an actor and works way around them by playing a character who would rather be closer to realism than larger than life. Candice Boucher, as Aazaan's love interest and the elder sister of the girl with the cure, is an odd casting choice, as the ex-Playmate's personality is in direct contrast to that of Joshi himself. Tall, with a strong voice and quite a bit of screen presence, her scenes with Sachiin are a bit raucous. Boucher, however, doesn't have much of a role here, with her on-screen time barely stretching beyond, 20-25 minutes of the movie.

The other performances particularly Aarya Babbar, Ravi Kissan and Aly Khan too are in keeping with the films less-is-more mood. But what on earth is the talented Sarita Choudhary doing in a role that looks like James Bond's M on steroids.

What the movie lacks in plot and performances, Prashant tries to make up in technicality. And he succeeds to an extent. With ample resources at hand, Aazaan ranks high on production values, stubborn on that end. The credit here goes to the film's director of photography Axel Fischer, who, in sequences set in locations as exotic as Morocco, Poland, Thailand and South Africa, crafts some fantastic visuals for the movie. The movie only lights up in its action sequences, of which, luckily, there are many, and here too, Fischer's vision comes out in full flow, adding to the heart pumping energy of the scenes.

The film's music, by Salim-Sulaiman, fails to leave a mark, though the musical pair has claimed it to be their best work yet. Perhaps one can chalk it up to the way Chadha uses it in his story.

Though it's certainly interesting to see a doomsday movie come out of Bollywood, Aazaan is no flag-bearer for the genre here. While movie scores big on the technical front with its focus on getting the professional picture right, Prashant Chadha seems to have resigned on putting together a real, understandable narrative.

Overall, it is an above average film and watch once for treat of exotic scenes and actions.