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Drona
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'Drona' Groan-aaa!

By Naresh Kumar Deoshi
Film critic, ApunKaChoice.Com

Gentleladies and men. Please make way for our new local superhero – Indiana Drones. Mind you, he doesn’t embark on any trivial mission like the search for the Holy Grail. Drona fights to save nothing less than the entire srishti.

As you must have rightly guessed, director Goldie Behl lets his imagination run amok in Drona . He pieces together a visual spectacle full of mind-numbing special effects and a zillion poses of a sword-wielding Abhishek Bachchan trying hard to stand gracefully against the strong desert winds. And that’s pretty much what ‘Drona’ is all about. Visuals, and visuals, and some more visuals. Story and script may go to hell. Or still better, to the asuras.

‘Drona’

tells a tale of a clan of warriors who have been protecting the supreme secret of the elixir of life – the amrit that was churned out by the gods but has been sought by the asuras (demons) since forever. Drona is the title of the main person who guards the secret.

Now, cut to the present day Prague where Aditya lives a thankless existence until one day he – guided by a hovering rose petal – finds an ancient bracelet in his cupboard and puts it on. Coincidentally, a devious magician Riz Raizada ( Kay Kay Menon ) visits the city for his show and spots Aditya and recognizes him as a potential Drona, the only person who knows (or could know) the secret place where the amrit is hidden.

You see, Riz is the modern asura who wants to be immortal by gulping down the holy amrit. And Drona is the man who possesses its secret.

Before Aditya can figure out why the heck this queer-looking magician is so interested in him (pun unintended), enters Sonia ( Priyanka Chopra ) who kicks a few butts and protects Aditya from the magician’s men. Aditya is then told about his real identity – that he is the next Drona.

Voila.

So, our superhero-in-waiting flies home to Pratapgarh to take charge of his duties as the protector of the pious secret. But the evil Riz catches up with him fast. What follows is a battle between Drona and Riz, the good and the evil. And you don’t have to be an Einstein to figure out who will win this battle.

Many things don’t click in ‘Drona’. For one, Abhishek Bachchan is a poor choice to play the title role. No doubt he can act, but he doesn’t have the body and its suppleness to play the part of a warrior. A Hrithik Roshan or Akshay Kumar might have done wonders to the role, while Abhishek looks stilted in his Drona suit and is visibly uptight when he wields the sword. His sword-to-sword combat with the magician in the end is without any spark.

Priyanka Chopra – playing Drona’s shadow and protector – looks fetching in her unique outfit with a special head-gear and foot-gear. Though her role doesn’t demand exceptional histrionics, she does look convincing doing the action scenes.

Kay Kay Menon makes a caricature out of his character with his over-the-top performance. This performance stands conspicuously low in the career of an otherwise superb actor. Jaya Bachchan has a small role and is reduced to a stone statue for the most part of the story.

Goldie Behl may have intended to make an interesting film for kids and adults, but he fails to give ‘Drona’ a right shape. He seems over-fixated to make the film visually spectacular. One special effect after another is hammered into your head as if the director wants to exhibit his skill and imagination, which, alas, is borrowed from a number of films from Spielberg’s ‘Indiana Jones’ to Zhang Yimou’s ‘Hero’.

Consequently, ‘Drona’ ends up a boring, botched-up, soulless film with below-average music and sub-standard performances.

Watch it at your own risk.

Rating: *

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