The Legend of Drona

A combination of a terrible film, sleep deprivation, my drivers holiday (Eid) and a couple of beers forced me to walk out of the film within 25 minutes. I had the same kind of foreboding within 5 minutes of the start as I had in Love Story 2050. The story, dialogue, acting, characters were all so terrible, poorly drawn out, stereotypical that I just couldn't bear to watch this one fully I walked out just as Kay Kay, who plays the villain, was introduced and hearing his hammy dialogue proved to be the straw that broke this camel's back. Subsequently, my wife, brother, mother etc watched it fully and assured me I did the right thing. Even the two points are only for the special effects that I didn't see (copied from a slew of Hollywood adventure films) and for Priyanka Chopra (who's entrance also I sadly missed).

Apparently Goldie has already decided that he's going to do a sequel. He may have trouble finding someone to bankroll it this time. Sorry for copping out, but I took instinctive evasive action just as a batsman instinctively dodges a bouncer to the head.

More reviews at Apurvbollywood at blogspot.

...because people will be questioning why they had wasted 2+ hours on this snooze-fest. It is the most boring movie to come out this year. Thank God for giving man the brain to invent the fastforward buttons. The film overuses slow-motions to the extent that even in fast forward mode, things move slowly. The action sequences are pathetically executed and the special effects are tacky (to say the least). Goldie Behl is clearly proving to be one of the worst directors. Abhishek Bachchan wears only two expressions: that of looking clueless and that of...well, to quote a friend, think of a child who just had his toy taken away after which his face reddens before throwing a tantrum. Yes, that's the title character. Jaya Bhadhuri looks as though she really dreaded being a part of the movie and only did it for baby Bachchan's (who's trying to look like a man) sake. Priyanka Thopra acts like a zombie. She's supposed to be this action heroine who wears no expression and does the occasional item-number type dance. The only reason why I bothered with 'Drona' was because of Kay Kay Menon who's one of my favourite actors. I did enjoy his over the top villain act but the character is too much of a caricature. But I'm still thankful for the fast forward button and if the slow motions were reduced to normal speed, the movie would have finished in a good 30-45 minutes...and it would still be boring as I have experienced. Plus, the songs deserve to be fast-forwarded too. The ridiculous ending promises a sequel but I hope the film bombs badly enough to avoid any further torture.

firstly I would like to recommend IMDb- the site to have separate rating scheme, where films such as this can be rated in negatives.

my plot -

On an unfortunate evening, I decided to watch DRONA. God what wrong had I done for you to not stop me? Well as fate would have it I went ahead and bought a ticket for this master piece of a film. To make it worse i made a friend of mine to travel 4 hrs in traffic to come and watch this movie with me.

we went in with no expectations. i don't like to go cinemas with a fixed head. i like to let the film surprise me... and yes it did...

Fortunately I missed the first 5mins of the film. The film began with terrible blue petal flying into a house, a stupid kid fooling around with it and an uncle who only has a cameo of few seconds. Of course you remember the spider-man and his old man. this uncle does not say much and gladly dies soon without any significance of any kind. Cruel aunt and mean cousin brother are incharge of Drona's life. Priyanaka Chopra is secretly protecting the so-called protector of the universe.

One day and damn foolish magician finds that DRONA is alive and he has the access to ELXIR. But before the magician can find Drona... Drona has to find himself? how philosophical? he figures out that he is a prince of some ruined land in India and he has a mother who is dressed distastefully as it can be. He father died of getting drowned and he is now responsible of saving the elixir from getting into wrong hands..

The magician comes and exploits the maa beta angle. the Drona decides to give him the elixir for the life of his mom. now how brave is it ?

and then a whole lot of confusing and frustrating events happen. in the end Drona kills the villain.... are we expected to be surprised???

Acting was the worst... i think AB Jr can take acting coaching from Himesh. Priyanaka, looked neither hot sexy or ugly... KK... poor him.

In all the film is a total humiliation of the audiences. Making movies such as this film should be considered terrorism.

It can be called the game of destiny or the Karmic circle that some people get all the resources, the backing and ready setup to make a huge movie and from the inside they are not the masters of the medium. On the other hand there are immensely talented people (directors and writers) who have all the potential of delivering a Hit but they never get a chance of proving themselves. Here destiny plays more important role than talent, I suppose. Why I felt this way after watching DRONA ? Here is the answer…

If we take into consideration the budget of DRONA and instead of making "Drona", we spend that money on 10 different small budget films giving break to new talents, then I am sure all the 10 films will come up with something interesting. A few may be exceptions, but they all will be able to recover the cost and may also generate profits by selling all kind of theatrical, satellite and digital rights.

But spending such amount of money on a dull, uninteresting and poorly executed project like "Drona" is out of my understanding. In fact in my opinion if any intelligent businessman would have seen the rushes of this movie half way, then he would have decided to shelve the project right there. I am a loyal Bachhan fan, but I feel sad to say that this is the most deadly or the worst choice of project from Abhishek Bachhan. May be he relied too much on his childhood friend Goldie Behl, the director of the movie, who could not deliver the goods for himself and his friend.

Drona simply fails to generate any kind of interest right from the start. You can feel the restlessness, the giggles and the noises in the theater just after 15 minutes of the movie. There is no definite plot and it keeps on dragging with costly and well executed digital effects. Interestingly all the special effects seem to be inspired from the "Mummy" series movies. The sand storm, the faces in the sands all look familiar. Abhishek tries to give an intense performance but doesn't have a well written role for him. Both the writer and director seem to be confused in what to make, a fantasy movie, a super hero movie or a super girl movie.

The annoying fact is that Priyanka Chopra looks more convincing and gorgeous in her super girl get-up than Abhishek as Drona. May be the film would have been far different and better if it was made around Priyanka as a super women. Jaya Bachhan has nothing to do in few scenes she has got, but as always she looks elegant. A complete mis-cast is K.K. in the role of evil villain. He tries to be funny and cruel at the same time but fails to impress. For the first time I felt K.K. was not doing his part with full spirits.

The script has not got any mention of a special time period. It keeps on shifting to different time spans with sudden jumps ignoring any continuity. However I made a keen notice for the work of Art Director. The fantasy sets and the mysterious city set in the second half was so childish, in bright colours like newly painted and was clearly visible that they were made out of cardboards and stationary materials. The sets were not impressive at all as compared to the special effects. Musically, nothing to mention as all songs were uninspiring and unwanted as per the script and demand of the subject. In the first half the songs disturb rather than entertain.

Only a night before, I heard the people from the Industry praising the movie at its premier in Mumbai. Now after watching it, I can only come to a conclusion that Abhishek has not got good, sincere and true friends around him. If there had been a true friend then he would have told Abhishek straight, that this is your latest grand mistake of making a wrong choice and please don't rely on it. Forget it as soon as possible. And I can bet that Amitabh, Jaya and Aishwarya, all being intelligent & experienced film personalities, knew at the back of their minds that this is not gonna work.

Last Words : The only worth watching thing in Drona is, the fight sequences by gorgeous Priyanka Chopra in a well suited get up.

After the failure of 2050 Love Story. I was expecting the directors in Bolloywood wouldn't dare repeating mistake. But this one, to amaze me, went beyond all the limits of flops.

Abhishek, could not act, as he must have forgotten or director had strict warning for him not to act. Lot of things in the movie has no direct or indirect link to the main story.

Priyanka Chopra, I pity her. She did same mistake after 2050. But never expected from Abhishek to act in such movie. Well, everyone makes mistake. This was big mistake though.

I heard, The villain was overspent for appearance. But seriously it was the worst role he must have done. Too much over acting and too much non-sense.

Dare not watch alone.