Starring | Abhishek Bachchan, Jaya Bachchan, Priyanka Chopra, Kay Kay Menon |
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Music | Ashutosh , Dhruv |
Director | Goldie Behl |
Producer | Shrishti Arya , Sunil Lulla |
Year | 2008 |
Perhaps, DRONA had raised our expectations for its overhaul radical genre of fantasy. Well, not many auteurs in Bollywood did endeavor with such genres of fantasies and Goldie Behl deserves a pat and applause for his bold attempt. Those flicks that had hit the screen during previous months were off great surprises though they didn't carry the presence of A-rated star casts as well big budgets. Well, Drona stapled with heavy price tag made us hankered to catch up with it for its extensive spell of VFX and other computer generated graphics. But, it's completely dashing down our hopes when glimpsing through narrative aspects. Neither story nor the screenplay is really convincing and Goldie Behl seems to be more perplexed on setting his theme between the genres of Superheroes and Fantasies.
The film right throughout from-alpha-till-omega, you can keep construing the flimsy conceptualization of script, clichéd characterizations, and creepy-chaffing screenplay. In particular, it's the galling screenplay that keeps going on and on, until you would scream out of senses, 'Stop it please'. The film doesn't reach its apex so easily and this is sure to get you aggravated. Better, it would have been, if Goldie had sawed off the lengthy tangling story penned by Jaydeep Sarkar, Rohini Killough and Godlie himself.
Despites, producers churning out the flick so expensively for a lavish grand fiesta of visual treat, the unappealing tale work no wonder for the audiences. Of course, it's worth saying their wonders of visual effects get diminished with the insubstantial narratives.
Fine! Glimpse through synopsis of DRONA and take on with positive attributes as well the blatant flaws blended to it.
Being a fostered child, young charming lad Aditya (Abhishek Bachchan) hasn't experienced true affection and it's just the pain of chagrins rendered by his family. The pathetic scenario prolongs as Aditya grows up. There comes a diabolic necromancer Riz Raizada (Kay Kay Menon) whose predecessors are Asuras. Riz is deep on the pursuit of a valuable secret €“ Amrit. But, the mantra of unraveling it is about defeating Drona. Sounds pretty easy to find Drona, isn't? If you're there with those perceptions, it's a wrong guess for Riz doesn't know who Drona is.
Well, situations accidentally urge Aditya and Riz come face to face. Within fraction of seconds, straight from his shoulders Riz glimpses through the Kada wore by Aditya and recognizes him as Drona. With attempts of killing Aditya, Riz has his men chasing him and here gets in Sonia (Priyanka Chopra) rescuing him. It's not just about saving his life, but Sonia gets Aditya to realize about his true identity and why is being targeted. Situations are clearer for Aditya, once he meets his biological mother, Queen Jayanthi Devi (Jaya Bachchan) at the palace of his birthplace. But, before he could take on stands and realize how harder the situations are, Riz and his men have trapped him. Here begins the roller-coaster thriller ride of DRONA on the venture of defeating the evil entities.
Looks quite clichéd, when it comes to tale of conflict between good and evil, for we have seen it a zillion times in Hollywood flicks. Merely, again there's lot of ambiguities in fixing DRONA with its genres. If it's a fantasy, the protagonist may not posses any superpowers to fight against baddies. And then, if screenwriters wanted DRONA to be a superhero flick, then characterizations should have been equivalently powerful, especially in physiques. Fine! Abhishek with his hefty physiques convinces to certain extent and it's more ridiculous with the looks of Kay Kay Menon as the antagonist.
Abhishek Bachchan strides with trenchant piece of performance in all aspects. But, Priyanka doesn't deserve the same credits, for her performance goes insubstantial at certain points. Jaya Bachchan steals the show throughout her scenes and it would have been nice if more importance her characterization was still more significant. But, it's a great disappointment when it comes to Kay Kay Menon and Navneet Nishan.
Getting on with technical aspects, it's just the cinematography and VFX that works wonders. Chasing and Train sequences have been brilliantly shot. Hats off to cinematographer Samir Arya for his scintillating works, but he could have worked well on certain shots filmed in darkness. Musical score by Dhruv Ghanekar is a great disaster for none of them really sounds good. VFX effects tread marvelously when it comes blended with cinematography in train and chasing sequences. Be it the scenes where Kay Kay Menon transforms Jaya Bachchan into statue or when he pulls in Priyanka Chopra into racing yacht; they are awesome.
As a whole, Drona dashes down our hopes for it lacks solidity on all aspects. Probably, the pre-release promos would have got the theatres booked houseful for this longer weekend. But, it wouldn't cling into theatres for more days
Verdict: An unimpressive show
Rating : *1/2