Rating: C
Dir: Asif Akbar
Star: Abm Sumon, Frank Grillo, Michael Jai White, Sakshi Pradhan
I was intrigued by the notion of a Bangladeshi spy movie, especially one based on a series of novels, which basically originated as a local knock-off of James Bond. Since the first story came out in 1966, there have been close to five hundred books published, making it perhaps surprising this is only the second film adaptation, following Masad Rana in 1974. But as the cast list above suggests, it’s not a pure product of local cinema (known as Dhallywood). That could be the problem: if feels as if it’s trying to cater to both local and overseas audience. The results may not satisfy either group, and I speak as a general fan of South Asian cinema.
The story has American authorities, in particular agent Duke (White), investigating the shady and possible terroristic activities of tech bro Roman Ross (Grillo) and his company, R & R Robotics. Their somewhat unwilling source falls off a building, and they decide to recruit Bangladesh’s top agent, Masad Rana (Sumon) as a replacement. With the help of glamorous sidekick Devi (Pradhan), he infiltrates Ross’s operation, and discovers a plot to blow up Hoover Dam, among other dams worldwide. Can he stop the evil billionaire’s scheme? It’s all fairly basic stuff plotwise, if you compare it to contemporary Western films like Mission: Impossible: Dead Reckoning, or Bollywood entries such as the The YRF Spy Universe. This story instead seems like it was copied from the back of an eighties video-box.
That isn’t necessarily a bad thing, but it’s fairly basic in a lot of other ways too. Most obviously, Sumon’s startling lack of charisma: there’s almost no detectable personality to speak of. It feels like he could be replaced by a mannequin in most of his scenes. Admittedly, he is likely operating with English as a second language, and there are times when the dialogue feels like it could have used a swift once-over by a native speaker. Grillo and White are fine, as expected. You’d think Grillo as a boffin – even one who knows how to kick ass – would be “radio astronomer Charlie Sheen” levels of implausible. But he’s okay, and gets some scenes with real-life son, Remy.
The action in general is hit and miss. Early on, it’s weak, with some painfully obvious stunt doubling; the final showdown at the “Hoover Dam” is better. Quotes used advisedly, because for a film where large chunks supposedly take place in Las Vegas, the production feels like it never got past the city limits. It is shot in super widescreen, which is nice, and lends it a visual quality missing in some other departments. At least they didn’t try and shoehorn any musical numbers in. Though maybe they should have, and really leaned into that sense of delirious excess, epitomized by RRR. Could have worked better than trying to imitate the Western style of action, and doing so in a way which rarely gets past tolerable.