It begins with horse races, betting, setting, unfaithfulness and eliminating the jockey who’s been bribed… All of it in the scenic locales of South Africa… Race, movie review –
Race is set in Durban, South Africa where the top horse owners are archrivals Saif Ali Khan and Dalip Tahil, the latter who begins to use unethical means in the horse racing circuit. Saif pays him back in the same manner. Now its quits and this matter ends here.
Ranvir (Saif Ali Khan) and Rajiv (Akshaye Khanna) are step-brothers having a huge stud farm in Durban, South Africa. They breed horses and are also the biggest bookies in the horse racing circuit. Ranvir, the elder one, a stern, stubbly millionaire is a daredevil who loves living on the edge. He dotes on his younger brother Rajiv who is an alcoholic and careless. However Rajiv is bitter because the entire estate is in his elder brother Ranvir’s name. So he hatches a plan to kill him and claim the insurance money apart from the other businesses. He brings in Bipasha Basu for this heinous crime. However, it turns out that Bipasha was brought in by Ranvir much earlier.
Sophia (Katrina Kaif) is Ranvir’s personal secretary. Through a background voice of Anil Kapoor we learn that this sexy employee adores her boss and loves him. Sonia (Bipasha Basu) is an upcoming Indian ramp model in Durban is Ranvir’s girl friend, but through a twist of fate she gets married to younger brother Rajiv. When Sonia discovers that Rajiv is a chronic alcoholic, her world is shattered. Ranvir is disturbed as he has sacrificed his love for his younger brother since Rajiv had promised him that he would leave alcohol once he gets married to Sonia.
After marriage, Rajiv breaks his promise, complications arise. In a planned move, Ranvir and Sonia come very close to each other. Rajiv quips – Shaadi chote bhai ke saath aur suhaag raat bade bhaiya ke saath’. This race of one-upmanship between the brothers continues till the end of the film, with there remaining just one winner.
Midway an accident occurs, purportedly to be a murder. A cop of Indian origin in South Africa Inspector Robert D’Costa (Anil Kapoor) who is assisted by his hot secretary – Mini (Sameera Reddy) gets working in this case.
Nothing is as it seems and nobody is exactly as they seem. Everybody has a motive and is operating from their world of greed. What comes now is a convoy of twists, with inside each character nurturing money-lust, ready to bend morality and there are lies. Though we have stunts here and there, what is evident all throughout is what we see is not what it is.
Akshaye Khanna just manages well using his smirk and shrugs. Though a bit overweight, he manages it aptly. Bipasha Basu carries off well enough as the Indian model and looks ravishing in the title number. Katrina Kaif mostly dressed in raunchy secretary gear, sizzles in the Zara zara song. Sameera Reddy has no scope to display neither her talent nor her hot image. We feel let down by the macho man Anil Kapoor, who enacts his part depicting the Karamchand detective style – how disappointing Its Saif Ali Khan who emerges the real stars in this ‘Race’.
Race, the film has Some good songs like “Pehli nazaar” by Atif Aslam, “Zara Zara touch me touch me” and the title track “Race”. There’s a twist every now and then and it’s impossible to guess what the culmination would be. Race has superb style (and substance), excellent dialogues, lovely choreography, the background score which has that international feel and a top class camera work. The movie is a superb entertainer all the way. Abbas and Mustan have directed a nice thriller, which is slick and stylish. It’s one of the best thriller in recent times.
Race, movie review
CAST of Race:
Ranvir Singh – Saif Ali Khan
Rajiv Singh – Akshaye Khanna
Sophia – Katrina Kaif
Sonia – Bipasha Basu
Inspector Robert D’Costa – Anil Kapoor
Mini – Sameera Reddy
CREDITS of Race:
Produced by – Kumar Sadhuram Taurani, Ramesh Sadhuram Taurani
Directed by – Abbas Alibhai Burmawalla, Mustan Alibhai Burmawalla
Dialogues – Anuraag Prapanna, Jitendra Parmar
Story, Screenplay – Shiraz Ahmed
Music – Pritam Chakraborty
Writer – Shiraz Ahmed
Lyrics – Sameer
Sound Re-recording Mixer – Leslie Fernandes
Visual Effects by – Vishal Bengare, Rahul Vishwakarma (Digital effects artists: Prime Focus)
Race, movie review