In Istaanbul, a mission impossible

Mission Istaanbul
Cast: Zayed Khan, Viviek Oberoi
Director: Apoorva Lakhia
Rating: **

Those who have blind faith in numerology etc, take note: the Turkish city is called Istanbul and taking the liberty of changing the spelling of a proper noun by adding an 'A' is not enough to change the fortunes of a film.

Director Apoorva Lakhia and writer Suresh Nair take a common conspiracy theory about terrorism, create an Obama lookalike, a Bush double and set the action out of a television channel in Istanbul. The channel, Al Johara (yes, it does sound like that other famous channel), headed by a rather foppish Ghazini (Nikitin Dheer) in collusion with the US is a front for terrorist activity around the globe.

Unaware of this clandestine operation, a dedicated journalist Vikas Sagar (Zayed Khan) forsakes his marriage to fellow reporter Anjali (Shriya Saran) and accepts a position with the channel in Istanbul.

All too soon he learns that his life is in danger. But how does a channel that apparently bumps off its reporters run a 24x7 channel without staff? But it seems Vikas will be too, unless he follows (a snickering) Rizwan (Viviek Oberoi). The events and energy of the film pick up with Oberoi's entry, but his knowing grin during a funeral, and thereafter, are rather misplaced and insensitive.

In order to keep the film crisp, vital for an action thriller, the filmmaker has been merciless in zipping through events in the first hour. However this has made the sequence of events and the demarcation of good and bad guys unclear.

Vikas and Rizwan team up to take on the terrorists, with a little help from an undercover agent in spray on vests and pants (Shweta Bhardwaj). But you never feel a sense of victory for the two men on a noble mission, maybe because the bad guys are totally wooden and frighten you more by their brawn rather than by their tactical brains.

Did we really need to see Nikitin Dheer with his shirt off so many times? Most unappetising. In fact the scene of a shirtless Zayed fighting Nikitin, Nikitin flexing, four men in a Turkish bath etc are rather homo-erotic but are unlikely to tantalise the ladies.

Of the cast, Shabbir Ahluwalia's underdeveloped character of an Afghan terrorist hardly gives him the chance to make an impact. Dheer is totally miscast and what's with those flowers on this suit lapels? Zayed Khan plays the best dressed news reporter I have ever seen, but clothes don't always make the man. Oberoi and Khan seem to be acting in isolation, trying to outdo each other in the muscle flexing department. I deliberately omit mention of any other performances.

Lakhia revels in the action genre and the stunts, action sequences and chases which are well executed, though not necessarily logical. The story and its rendition lack soul. The men are cardboard cutouts running through their lines mechanically and dipping into their limited repertoire of expressions.

The dialogues are weak and the unsubtle effort at evoking patriotism falls flat. The George Bush parody, though it resonates in view of recentevents, is unnecessary. The producers might be advised to leave city names alone and invest more in a script for better box office fortunes.