Agent Vinod fails to impress

He wears rich, designer suits and leather jackets, strips them even well, the top-half at least), to showcase his ripped abs, and chases the baddies with such gusto and charm that’s only befitting of a spook. And, he’s even got gorgeous, bikini-clad babes to garnish his adventures.  

All, a bit too similar to a glorious spy we know in Hollywood?

Well, although the filmmakers might have us believe otherwise, the styling, the babes, and even the escapades appear like a James Bond rip-off. 

But Saif’s attempt at playing Bond falls flat. And, how?

While he nails the body and attitude perfectly, it’s his choice of name for his alter-ego that makes his attempt rather lame in comparison.

Precisely why Saif posted a disclaimer at the onset, quoting Tuco from “The Good, The Bad and The Ugly” about the irrelevance of a name, as if explaining his obvious oversight.

That aside, Agent Vinod’s exploits, that take him across Moscow, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Somalia, South Africa, Morocco, Sri Lanka, Riga, UK and India in random, haphazard fashion, are far too lackadaisical and impractical. 

Even the spook’s gadgets appear far less sophisticated, with the tracking bugs doing a peek-a-boo on more occasions than one!

Saif even tweaks the spy thriller format with comic tones, making us wonder if the actor was ever serious about this effort. And this would probably explain why some of the supposedly intense dramatic sequences appeared unintentionally comical. 

There’s even a cheeky marriage proposal thrown in. You get the drift?

“Agent Viond” plays up the religious clichés associated with terrorism that is unforgivable, surely adding a dent in the already shaky Indo-Pak relationships. 

Such obvious glitches surface only because actors credit themselves with more grey matter than they possess. Surely an illustrious bloodline and a handful of notable performances aren’t enough to make a good, sensible film. Maybe if actors left such important decisions  

to the experts, Bollywood would end up making more sensible films. 

But what makes the film bearable is cinematographor C K  

Muraleedharan’s intrinsic camera work and Peter Heins and Parvez Khan's racy action scenes. However, writers Sriram Raghavan and Arijit Biswas’ clichéd Bollywood references ruin their efforts.

Of the performances, it’s Saif who appears to have all the fun, and rightly so. Clearly being a film producer has its perks! He ends up playing out his boy fantasy: embarking on daredevil stunts with blazing guns, chasing baddies in speeding cars, and romancing a light-eyed beauty. 

The well-rounded Kareena plays Kareena. And like in real life, in reel too, she stands awestruck by her machoist hero.  

But, it’s Adil Hussain as the terrorising Colonel, who packs a punch for his menacing style. Even his stony-faced, sidekick Anshuman Singh is noteworthy, and we hope his inability to emote more than one expression is a narrative flaw and not reflective of his own talents.

Of the guest appearances, Ram Kapoor appears daft as the chubby gangster Abu Nazir, while Gulshan Grover does a fairly decent act. 

Even, the motley collection of foreign extras deserve credit for expressing far more naturally than their more prominent, lead actors.

After making a groovy thriller like “Ek Hasina Thi”, director Sriram Raghavan deserves a spanking for this mish-mash of a film

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