Phantom review: An action thriller without thrills

Phantom is a hotchpotch of many Hollywood films such as Argo, Zero Dark Thirty, Mission Impossible series, Captain Phillips and towards the end even Titanic. The end result is a thriller sans thrills.

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Saif Ali Khan and Katrina Kaif in a still from Phantom
Saif Ali Khan and Katrina Kaif in a still from Phantom

Direction: Kabir Khan
Cast: Saif Ali Khan, Katrina Kaif, Mohammad Zeeshan Ayyub.

Ratings:

4 Star Rating: Recommended
(1.5/5)

In 2013, Bollywood imagined an idyllic world where RAW agents turned superheroes and nabbed Dawood Ibrahim in Pakistan and brought him to India. That was Nikhil Advani's D-Day, which saw India avenge for the 1993 blasts in Bombay. Earlier this year, we had Akshay Kumar, Anupam Kher and company heading to Saudi Arabia and returning back with a most wanted Maulana. This time around, we have a one-man army in Daniyal Khan (Saif Ali Khan) who is on a mission to get justice for the 26/11 Mumbai attacks in 2008. Director Kabir Khan, who in his last super hit film told audiences that we should make peace with our otherwise favourite worst neighbour, does a complete U-turn and has made a film that says that Pakistan, the land of cutie pies like Munni, also holds baddies who have orchestrated terror attacks on India. It explains why Pakistan has banned the film. In doing so, they have saved their citizens from watching a dull film which tries too hard to be a spy action thriller.

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ALSO READ: Why was the actor who played Hafiz Saeed in Phantom kept underground?

Trouble with Phantom is that for a film which tackles the grave issue of killing the masterminds of 26/11 attacks, it is hard to take it seriously. A chunk of the blame lies in the casting. You just can't find yourself rooting for Saif Ali Khan, who fails to pass the test of an awe-inspiring, charismatic, daredevil spy. It doesn't help that he carries a monotonous look throughout the film no matter what circumstance he finds himself in. Giving him good company in the bad acting department is Katrina Kaif who gets to tear up a little towards the end so that the audiences can too. They won't.

In Phantom, Samit Mishra (Mohammad Zeeshan Ayyub), an ordinary officer working for RAW convinces three of his colleagues to go ahead with a plan to eliminate the four biggest perpetrators of the attacks which killed 166 and brought the city to a standstill. They take it upon themselves to find the most enigmatic man for the duty. Enter Daniyal Khan, a disgraced, aloof army officer with the worst fake beard ever, who agrees to be the James Bond so as to win back his lost honour. He is the right fit, we are told, because nobody cares about him. That's what ends up happening in the film too because Khan's Daniyal doesn't just lack flair but also has absolutely no ability to be deceptive. Also nobody in the government is informed about this Zero Dark Thirty-like operation because you know they won't agree to it.

So begins Daniyal Khan's globetrotting killing spree which sees him go from some snowy place in India to London to Chicago to Beirut to what is supposed to be Syria and finally to what they want viewers to believe is Pakistan. Khan gets a little help from Katrina Kaif, who here is named Nawaz, which we think is perhaps Kabir Khan wishing he could have cast the talented Nawazuddin Siddiqui in this film and given it some compelling thespian drama. Nawaz, we are told, works for Darkwater, an outfit which through the course of this film shuttles from being the American security consulting firm Blackwater and a medical aid organisation. Daniyal Khan moves from one destination to another with such ease that he may as well be a mutant with superpowers. Alas nothing in Saif Ali Khan's demeanour or performance convinces so.

ALSO READ: From Dawood Ibrahim to Hafiz Saeed, know your terrorist, courtesy Bollywood

The second, slightly better edited half largely unfolds in Pakistan where Daniyal and Nawaz have an elaborate plan to knock off not one but two most wanted men, one of them being Hafiz Saeed who in the film goes by Haaris Saeed. The execution strategy in Pakistan is a tad more credible and thereby engaging than the ones carried out before. But it still can't hide the film's poor, contrived storytelling and that Daniyal and company have it far too easy in the land of the enemy. There is a lot of action in Phantom but little of it is compelling. Soon incredulity sets in such as when Daniyal simply runs away after killing a popular leader in a crowded street in Pakistan or when Nawaz and Daniyal head into the predictable romance territory and make plans to have tea and chocolate pastries at the Taj hotel.

Teaming up with his Bajrangi Bhaijaan writer Parveez Shaikh again, Kabir Khan seems to be missing his other partner KV Vijayendra Prasad, who could have brought some much-needed heart to the proceedings. Phantom is a hotchpotch of many Hollywood films such as Argo, Zero Dark Thirty, Mission Impossible series, Captain Phillips and towards the end even Titanic. The end result is a thriller sans thrills. That you care less for Daniyal's heroic feats is the film's biggest failing.