For last couple of years Salman has reached a stage of pinnacle in his career, thanks to his triple mega blockbusters. But as we all know most of his critics (including me) didn’t like his Ready and Bodyguard fairing the way they did, as it was just megalomania or shall I say Sal-mania and nothing else for them ending up being such huge hits. Before 2009 (Wanted) he was just another Khan, but post 09 he has even raced ahead of Sharukh’s charming persona. Here in this background releases ETT on eve of Ramzan (again)!
ETT starts with a voice over and a literally smoking intro sequence for RAW agent Salman followed by astounding action sequence on the streets of Zakho, Iraq in chapter 1, best part is all this has been shown in the trailer, so hopefully I thought we’re in for a treat. But alas that’s not the case, as the story goes to next chapter Dublin to find a stunning Kaif aka ISI agent. As expected the inevitable happens in a tedious mundane way and the twist doesn’t surprise a single soul in the hall. Nevertheless post interval chapter 3, Istanbul stagnates the proceedings further only to pick up momentum in final chapter Havana, Cuba. It is here where some true action happens in the story as well as in climax and as always all is well that ends well. And also not to forget piece of advice let us have love and peace with neighborhood countries.
Well first about Salman he sleepwalks his role with ease, his uber cool attitude and flamboyance is hard not to admire. Why I say so is because he still has very few expressions on his face, in my terms we call it ‘restricted affect’ :) Kaif does pretty well again, is faring better with each release, looks stunning as ever, her character for a change has some substance and she handles it with aplomb but even this has been cleverly modified to suit her average skills, looked she enjoys poking fun at our Kaddu:) It was surprising to find Roshan Abbas in the proceedings in an unthankful role. While Ranveer Shorey is decent, Karnad Sir is again in an unthankful role!
In the technical dept the action sequences are brilliantly done by a Hollywood action director. Barring the train sequence rest of the chases and stunts are excellent. It was nice to see Kat having a go at the baddies with ease. But contrary to what has been said in the interviews, most of stunts are body doubles and can be made out easily. As already mentioned it is a simple two line story adapted cleverly for the 2 hour screenplay. Editing and cinematography score the most adding the value of the end product. Music is not up to the mark, the best song has been put up at the end along with the end titles, MashAllah! Kabir Khan at the helm of affairs does a decent job in cleverly handling the average script and successfully sees to it that the focus is always on Salman so that the lacunae won’t be noticed and to a larger extent he succeeds as there was not a Sallu scene without whistles.
On a whole it is an average entertainer, but the stylishly picturised action and suave Salman playing the role for a change are far better than his last 3 outings which were a complete no brainer, I go with an extra half for him and rate it 3/5 !