Game (2011)

SERIOUSLY. This is what the crap Hollywood still puts out?

not horrible nor great

Highly Overrated But Still Good

A clunky actioner with a handful of cool moments.

The makers have ensured "Game" has all the ingredients a suspense thriller should encompass - style, sleek and surprises. Sadly there are not in palatable proportions, therefore as the plot thickens the content starts to give away the weight. The premise perhaps is an interesting read but translating it to a nail-biting viewing experience requires smart directorial sensibilities and precisely here Abhinay Deo spills the beans of a newcomer leading to an amateur end product. Additionally the end hardly makes you jump out of the seat as the breadcrumbs are so prominently highlighted in the narrative that the audience is denied of playing guessing game.ᴥ Junior B:: Suave & confident with some great tongue-in-cheek lines.ᴥ Sarah Jane Dias:: Her character though central to the premise hardly leaves an impact owing to the soul-less performance. ᴥ Kangana:: Attempt clearly inspired by Lara Croft which sadly falls flat. Her body language and expressions don't really pull off the feat. Bipasha perhaps?ᴥ Anupam Kher & Boman Irani:: Reliable as usual.ᴥ Jimmy Shergill, Shahana Goswami & Gauhar Khan:: Hardly any meat in the role. Songs hardly register. The inflated production costs are owing to the unwarranted foreign locales. The best thing about "Game" is the editing which has ensured the length is no more than audience staging a walkout."Race" is an ideal benchmark on how a suspense thriller should be delivered.PS: Under the watchful supervision of Mr. Perfectionist it wouldn't be a surprise if Abhinay reclaims lost ground in his next outing (Delhi- Belly).

In a refreshingly slick thriller, director Abhinay Deo has quite a cast to work with for his Crime Scene Investigation – 'Game', which keeps announcing that 'it's a game...'. Yes, we get the point. There are shades of the Akhtars being in charge of writing some of the story especially in the second half. While Game offers many twists in its investigative second half that differs from the first (which deals with a conspiring meeting of distinct individuals on a Greek Island), its back stories and meandering sub-plots tend to take the Game all over the place. Nevertheless, it does make up a decent Sunday afternoon DVD rental.Four strangers from different parts of the world are summoned by the reclusive business magnate Kabir Malhotra (Anupam Kher) to his private island in Greece where he offers to help them in their crisis weary lives. After a welcome by Kabir's assistant Samara (Gauhar Khan), they are all greeted by Malhotra who reveals stories about each one's dark past and accuses them of being a part of his daughter's life and death. He also warns them of the impending arrival of the International Vigilance Team that will look into the proofs he provides against each of them the next day. But morning brings with it a shocking event that triggers a series of twists, sub-plots and mysteries that unfold before the intrigued viewer.Boman Irani plays the Thai Prime Ministerial candidate Ramsay, who keeps more secrets than the number of pills that subside his high blood pressure. His portrayal as the sinister politician is the film's dark element. Jimmy Shergil plays the popular bollywood actor Vikram Kapoor whose guilty conscience disturbs him enough to cause his films to flop. His is an insignificant character to whom one cannot really relate to or even empathize with. The alcoholic journalist Tisha Khanna (Shahana Goswami) is the other inconsequential revelation as Malhotra's second daughter, the twin sibling of the murdered Maya. One may wonder where she disappeared in the second half. Neil Menon (Abhishek Bachchan) is a casino owner and drug peddler based in stunning Istanbul where he falls in love with Maya and subsequently loses her to an accident. The film's surprise element is Abhishek's character and he does enjoy this exciting twist. Kangana Ranaut as the investigating officer looks determined but hardly credible. Sarah-Jane as Maya plays a brief role, looks good in some scenes but the characterization for her failed to draw any emotions from the viewer. With each unfolding mystery, the story keeps throwing more twists that keep the suspense alive. Unlike the C.I.D. Mysteries where analysis reveals all new characters or observation, the story tellers manage to keep it all secretive till the very end while the analysis by investigators reveals facts that were depicted in front of us which we may overlook. This is one of the intriguing aspects of the film's story telling that tends to impress. Surely, it has something to do with Javed Akhtar's skills that gave us so many thrillers in the 70's. Unfortunately, the film is not quite balanced overall. The numerous sub-plots, poorly scripted characters and direction that did not do justice to the story, all bring mediocrity to a well written plot. The film could've been a genuinely fun Game to play along but it simply lost focus in the middle and was left upon Abhishek to hold it together. Shankar Ehsaan Loy's score is average with only the end credits song 'Kaun hai ajnabi' being worthy of a download. If the story was the backbone of this film, the cinematography was its beautiful face. Istanbul has been depicted in all its splendour with slick shots from rooftops and its Bosphorus strait showcasing the city's fine architecture. Game is a slick looking thriller with a good amount of twists that engage the viewer for some time. Its problems of lengthy back-stories and poor characterization tend to disrupt the steady flow of informative investigation but blame that on its inexperienced director. Too bad for Abhishek though as he had a role to capitalize on; had everything else been done right around him. It still is worthy of the home video rental if not the expensive movie theater outing. Watch it for the stylish camera work through Greece and Turkey and to engage your mind into a murder mystery that will keep you guessing.....7.011 on a scale of 1-10.

In the present times when we have some outstanding and well directed crime & mystery serials being served in our homes on daily basis, it becomes very tough to come up with an equally great film in the same genre. Hugely famous series such as C.S.I. has raised the standard of this genre to such heights which now seems to be quite unbeatable especially in our part of the world.And that's the major reason why GAME the latest flick starring Abhishek Bachchan in lead under the debut direction of Abhinay Deo fails entirely and is a great disappointment from its makers. The director seems to be a big fan of foreign thriller films, their production values and their cinematography. But in his awe of the western film-makers, he forgets about the major basic requirement of his project, which has to be a descent & an engaging script. It's not an easy job to make a Who Done It film today, because the people are so impatient that they at once want to jump to the last page (or climax) of the book to know the secret. Moreover a murder mystery has to be fast, interesting, entertaining and surprising all together in its short duration of 2 hours essentially. And in absence of any of these above mentioned elements you cannot win over the audiences, who already have much more solid stuff coming on their home televisions every day. Bollywood's old murder mysteries before the 80s had a fine blend of action, suspense, romance and comedy in them which still remain enjoyable till date. But we have lost that golden touch amongst today's glamour and grandeur, which is no doubt sad as well as unavoidable at the same time. So keeping the same framework in mind, GAME also tries to put everything together in one pot which unfortunately makes the dish completely distasteful and a waste. The film neither has got the required pace nor the excitement which is a must for a film made in this particular genre.Starting with the same kind of setup as seen in the recent LUCK and the oldieSHALIMAR, it takes off nicely but then goes too slow and becomes boring within the first 40 minutes itself. The story developments are not able to engage you at all and one keeps waiting for something great to happen on the screen right till the climax. In short, nothing in GAME impresses you and post intermission one simply feels like wasting his time in the theater helplessly. The songs are all below average with a little relief provided by the background score. Cinematography capturing all the foreign outdoors is excellent, but if the director thinks that by only showing some great virgin locations and stunning chase sequences he can win over the viewers, then he really needs to work upon his art a lot more. In simple words, we are there in the theater for the film and its entertainment but not for some tourist site seeing on the big screen. Besides the characters moving within Mumbai, Bangkok, Istanbul with such an ease and in a STAR-TREK kind of time frame is quite bizarre.Then there are some huge problems in the casting and performance department of the film. Like I simply coudn't understand what was there in the script, especially written for any of its four ladies. First of all Sarah Jane Diaz does nothing other than some Skin Show and changing costumes in her debut movie. Secondly, Kangna as an international police detective looks like a big misfit who overacts and also puts in a lot of visible effort to deliver her dialogues in English. Thirdly, Gauhar Khan is fine but she is only there in the start and end of the movie, taking a leave in between. And lastly Shahana Goswami, the most talented among the four is completely wasted by the director in a very silly manner.Coming to the men in GAME, surprisingly here too we have a lot of talent wasted by the writers because they don't have anything great to give to any of the talented males in the script. Jimmy Shiergill is only there for the namesake and doesn't even have some descent dialogues. Boman Irani for the first time does it over the top with a lot of shouting than acting. Both Mohan Kapur and Benjamin Gilani have only one or two scenes.Among the big ones, Anupam Kher doesn't get any scope in the script and is only dressed well in his opening scene. But I have some serious advice to give to Abhishek Bachchan. In this competitive world, if you only concentrate on your performance and don't care about the other aspects of film-making, like its script, direction and story progression, then you do need to give it a second thought urgently. Abhishek's performance in the film is fine, but as I said earlier who goes to watch a film for only one performance or for only its cinematography? Yes, In India, we do go for a film if it has some HIT songs, but not if it only has some worth watching solo-act, photography or good foreign locations. So, Abhishek desperately needs to work on his choice of films, his directors and in clear words should stop saying yes to the projects put forward by some dear friends and acquaintances.Summing up, I would like to add that don't go for this movie only looking at its inviting title assuming that it will offer some real cunning games for your thinking mind. Instead go for the English Flick with a similar title "THE GAME" starring Michael Douglas and Sean Penn which will sure give your grey cells a real tough time.

It has become a practice with some of our so-called movie "critics" to pick holes in every movie they watch and critique. This could be a way of justifying what they do to earn their daily bread but sometimes it's for the sake of being "critical". So negative reviews by "critics" have been very irritating because I saw most people in the audience enjoying the movie. I am not suggesting GAME is fabulous but I will say it's fun to watch. For one thing it is slick. The frames, the locales, the settings-- all are glossy and very urban (which is why this film cannot be a huge nation wide hit). Abhishek looks very good. I think Gauhar Khan deserves a mention here. She acted well. Kangana needs diction lessons. I liked the film because it ran well. I wasn't thrilled by the music (Shankar et al have been churning out lackadaisical music for a while now) but I enjoyed watching stuff that was so un -Dabangg like. I am getting tired of watching that Eastern UP rustic tripe-- a bandwagon that every film maker now wants to climb on, post Dabangg.I wish Farhan Akhtar had tweaked the script a little more to make it tighter with no sags. But, no problems. Chalta hai. This is Bollywood and not every film is aspiring to go to the Oscars!