StarBoxOffice.com Review

Director: Abbas-Mastan

Race is the story of two brothers Ranvir Singh (Saif Ali Khan) and his alcoholic younger brother Rajiv Singh (Akshaye Khanna). Their life revolves around horse racing – from owning a stud farm to betting huge money on them, the two millionaires can’t see beyond the thrills of fast cars and fast horses. Bipasha Basu plays Sonia – the successful model while Katrina potters around the first half of the film as Ranvir Singh’s personal assistant. The film begins with Ranvir Singh meeting with a serious road accident which Singh, disappointingly for someone, survives. On his brother's return home from the hospital, Rajiv throws a party where he meets Sonia for the first time. Now Sonia is Ranvir’s secret girlfriend but when he sees his younger brother fall for her, Ranvir takes a back seat and allows their romance to flourish. Soon enough Rajiv and Sonia head up to the altar. But not because they are madly in love but because the two have hatched a plan to kill Ranvir and claim the 100 million from Ranvir’s life insurance. And by the time the interval comes around, Saif has fallen from the top of his high storey office and Ranvir and Sonia are counting down the days till the 100 million drops into their account.

But knowing Abbas Mastan it really couldn’t have been that simple!

The twist in the tale comes in when in walks pretty little Sofia claiming to be Ranvir’s lawfully wedded wife and the person who will now get the 100 million dollars from his death! So while Inspector Robert D’Costa (Anil Kapoor) and his assistant Mini (Sameera Reddy) try to solve Ranvir Singh’s murder, younger brother Rajiv Singh tries to get hold of the money from Sofia. And just when you think this is yet another Bollywood good vs evil film, Abbas Mastan throw in a couple more twists!

Overall the film is not bad but a large amount of credit for that goes to the editor and to Allan Amin – the man behind all the action. Abbas Mastan will draw in fans to the box office largely because of the multi star line up and for the infamous Bipasha Basu – Saif Ali Khan lovemaking number (which let us warn you isn’t all that much!). The fast cars, horse racing and the locales of South Africa make the film a treat to watch. But as far as the acting is concerned a lot of the times you were left laughing (when you shouldn’t) and cringing (when you definitely shouldn’t!) The girls looked great thanks to Anahita Shroff Adajania and Katrina and Sameera did just that. It was only Bipasha who can actually claim to have acted in the film. Akshaye Khanna and Saif, on the other hand, were brilliant. The less said about Anil Kapoor and Sameera the better!

So should you go and watch the film?

Yes by all means but only if you are fans of the clichéd Bollywood masala films where deep down you know exactly what is going to happen by the time the credits roll but , like us, you just can't get enough of them!

-Harshita Kohli