Dhoom 3 Review: Thriller in Every Angle

Today was the big day we were waiting for. It’s not just the release of the third iteration of the killer-action movie series but its also the last time I myself and my friends would go for a movie, together, this academic year. So, there are two things that’s going to make this day very much memorable for me. I’m glad almost all my friends in the circle came but I’m also glad for a second reason – the movie blew away my expectations.

Because it was awesome! That’s one way to put things straight. Dhoom 3 is in every angle, a mass thriller. I was quite unsure when I heard Aamir was doing a lead role as he wasn’t one of my top favourites and I didn’t get the idea why they chose Aamir over SRK or any other actor out there. He’s cool and yes he knows to make a six-pack and work it out but Aamir Khan playing the Dhoom villain? No way, I thought myself. However, I terribly feel sorry for thinking so after seeing the movie today as Aamir was just fabulous. He not only did exceed all my expectations but also made a chill in the spines of all the viewers. His opposite character role, or should I say ‘characters’ roles’ never went down along the movie and instead of making the viewers praise the heroes, he made the villain the hero throughout the entire movie. That’s right, it’s Aamir all the way and he never failed to earn the applause of the viewers in any scene.

If you are going to watch the movie, don't read the below paragraphs and skip to the end to see my final stance towards the movie. You don't want to ruin the suspense, don't you? ;)

The plot is not pretty much epic. Its basically a revenge story where Sahir (Aamir Khan) seeks to end the life of a Bank company for destroying their circus company and thereby forcing his father to pull the trigger to end his own life. Sahir grows furious of the incident and he wants to end the company once and for all. For this, he steals every bank under the company thereby bringing the company’s works to a halt. As usual, our heroes, Jay Dixit (Abhishek Bachchan) and Ali (Uday Chopra) arrives to investigate and then onwards, its the usual Dhoom stuff. But the epic twist comes at the end of the first-half where the viewers discover that it’s not just Sahir who’s behind the whole robbery but there also exists an apparent identity of himself in the curtains. His twin brother, Samar. Wait, twins? Yup! That was an epic twist in every sense as nobody could’ve ever imagined there was a double role in Aamir’s employment to Dhoom 3. The filmmakers kept it real secret and the plot never popped out to any media. So, if you were on first day and first show, you probably would’ve got the same chills I got while I was seeing that. A great kudos to the filmmakers for keeping it a secret.

Samar is in behaviour, quite mad but don’t underestimate the character. He’s the real genius and driving power of the robberies even though he’s not normal. This helps them hide from the cops’ eyes and vanish from every robbery the attempted. Samar’s existence was kept real secret by their Dad, Iqbal (Jackie Shroff) and hence, this gave them a niche opportunity to show several tricks during their circus by showing off some ‘magic’ but we knew there would always be something behind the scene. Jay eventually finds out the existence of twins and not just Sahir and persuades Samar by becoming friends with him. Samar on the other hand had found yet another light in his life after meeting Alia (Katrina Kaif) with whom he fell in love. Alia was employed by Sahir as their lead performer. Samar’s relationship with Alia got stronger with the help of Jay even though she didn’t knew about the twins’ secret. However, Sahir comes to know his twin brother broke the silence and tracks down Jay. This was an epic moment in Dhoom 3 as here too came a suspense scene where Jay believed he was talking to Samar (we all did) and when he tried to shake hands with Samar, Samar pulls him down to the ground and reveals himself to be Sahir. It was purely epic.

The twins’ attempts the last robbery and succeeds in doing so. However, their escape route was blocked by the cops led by Jay and Ali. At this point, the scene was becoming sentimental. Sahir for the first time shows some kindness and he surrenders himself to Jay on the condition that he will leave Samar and Alia alone. But instead of surrendering, Sahir makes a dive into the bottom of the dam (yes, that was the place). But Samar jumps along with Sahir and catches Sahir on one hand and gets a grip on the steel support on the other. Even though Sahir insisted to leave him, Samar doesn’t and he reminds Sahir when his Dad told him not to leave his brother’s hand ever. Then they recite their traditional lines of epic poetry, “Bande hai hum uske… “ and Samar lets off the hold and they both go down to the bottom. They die.

The bank owner loses the company as its stocks fell. Alia starts to run the family circus and as for Jay and Ali, well, you know what they will do. End of Story.

Besides my solemn appraise, there were a lot of letdowns I felt during the flow of the movie. There wasn’t much of a unique story in the movie. Its basically the same old revenge story with some killer action here and there. Another thing was the existence of a lot of “unbelievable” action and non-action scenes here and there in the movie. This made the scenes look overrated. There were instances where the twins evade the police easily at places of getting caught easily. They just drove off and that’s it. They’re gone. This was too much for me as even in Hollywood movies, the escapes would seem realistic and makes it clear to the viewers that there were not much chances of getting caught. Dhoom 3 was entirely opposite.

While Aamir made promising action and killer scenes, his role doesn’t always reflect the coolness of the character. At places, he would look funny where he needed to look serious instead. This made a lot of lags here and there. As for Jay and Ali, my love for both died out after seeing the movie. There is not much point in the film where Jay and Ali are the real stars. Moreover, Ali lost a lot of sense of humour in the third sequel. As for Alia, she’s not like Sunheri who used to love action. Alia’s only role is on stage and not off stage. The film also lost the traditional pace of Dhoom series. The story has revenge and romance and hence lost the Dhoom elixir.

The music isn’t much good either (except for ‘Bande hain hum uske’ which was terrific) but the visuals were stunning. As expected, ‘Malang’ was worth the price and is a visual spectacle to watch and drop your jaws at. One of the better visual effects in Bollywood films I’ve seen so far.

In the end, the flaws doesn’t make Dhoom 3 an unworthy film. The only thing is – its different from its predecessors which opens up new hopes for the future releases. It is in every way a Christmas blockbuster and whether you’re an Aamir fan or not, you got to watch this film for its thriller moments and epic twists and mind-blowing suspense. The lack of a bold story won’t let you down as the thrill will override eventually. I’d recommend you to watch this film if you haven’t and if you haven’t heard the story yet which I don’t quite think so as you’ve read the article already.

4.5 / 5

Dhoom machale dudes!