Roy Review {3.5/5} & Review Rating
Suspense-thrillers have always been one of the favourite genres of Bollywood lovers. Add to that some melodious music and you have a winner. This week's release ROY starring Arjun Rampal, Ranbir Kapoor and Jacqueline Fernandez have promised the above elements. Will ROY make the cut and become a match winner for its makers and the B-O windows... let's analyse.
The film starts off with an interview of the film maker Kabir Grewal (Arjun Rampal), the very man who, has to his credit, the successful film series 'Guns' (which is based on a mysterious art thief Roy (Ranbir Kapoor). The irony of Kabir's life is that he is in the news for his short-lived flings than his hit movies... so much so that, even the media 'remembers' his flings by numbers and not names!
Roy is a smooth-operator thief who makes a living out of stealing arts (read 'priceless paintings'). And in one such heist, he lands up in Malaysia, which also happens to be the domain of the wealthy Tia (Jacqueline). Simultaneously, suffering from a 'writer's block', Kabir too lands up in Malaysia in order to shoot an incomplete screenplay of his third instalment of 'Guns'. That's when he lands up meeting a London based filmmaker Ayesha Aamir (Jacqueline Fernandez, in a double role). Ayesha, who is in Malaysia to film her new documentary, also happens to check into the same hotel as Kabir. In no time, she lands up becoming his 'Girlfriend No.23', as the media reports. Kabir, who is in search of inspiration for his film lands up falling head over heels in love with Ayesha Aamir, so much so that he becomes crestfallen when Ayesha leaves him. At the same time, Kabir's father cum confidante (Anupam Kher) also passes away, thus making Kabir's life more miserable. On the other hand, Roy, who realizes his love for Tia, wants to leave the bad criminal life behind him and start fresh.
Will the 'self-confessed-thief' Roy become successful in leaving his past behind and start a clean life with Tia, will Kabir manage to complete the third instalment of Guns, and do Roy and Kabir get the respective love of their lives... is what forms the rest of the film.
As far as the film is concerned, debutante Vikramjit Singh steps into Bollywood with a film that is slow paced and long. His sense of storytelling needs to be more polished than this one. Brownie points to Singh for having captured the luscious beauty of Malaysia in its raw essence. He should have made some attempts to differentiate between the two characters which Jacqueline plays, as it might confuse the viewer between the two parallel stories.
As far as the performances are concerned, as the name suggests, its Ranbir Kapoor who steals the thunder. In all fairness, he is indeed the draw of the film. He is adept and totally at ease when handling intense scenes. Even though he lends a fair share of mystery to 'Roy', he never allows himself to go off-guard. As far as Arjun Rampal is concerned, he delivers a very restrained and a very believable performance. At the same time, knowing his acting prowess, one also feels that, he definitely could have handled the film with furthermore intently than this one. Even though Jacqueline Fernandez, who looks stunning in a couple of songs, is a 'newcomer' when it comes to double roles, she does manage to deliver a decent performance in both the roles. Anupam Kher excels in the role that seems to be tailor-made for him. While Cyrus Broacha and Rajit Kapoor are average, the eye-candy Mandana Karimi makes her presence felt in a short lived cameo.
The film scores heavily on its music (Amal Mallik). The songs 'Sooraj dooba hai', Tu hai ke nahin', 'Chittiyaan kalaiyaan' are already a rage everywhere and it stays with you for a long time even after the film is over. The film's background music (Sanjay Chaudhary) adds some more additional spice. The film's choreography (Ahmed Khan) is good. Despite the film's genre, there are no over-the-top dialogues (Vikramjit Singh, Hussain Dalal). Cinematography (Himman Dhamija) is very classy. Screenplay (Vikramjit Singh) on the other hand definitely could have been better.
On the whole, ROY is a film to be watched if you are a fan of thriller movies with some soul-stirring music.
