DHOOM:2' - UK Rated: 12A - Runtime: 151min 45secs - Tagline:Back in Action

Plot Summary
Ali's [Uday Chopra] dream of becoming a police officer has come true. He is now ACP Jai Dixit's [Abhishek Bachchan] right hand man. Together, they are trying to keep a tight leash on the crime in India. Little do they know what they are going to be up against.

Enter Mr. A [Hrithik Roshan]. A hi-tech international thief. After pulling off a series of impossible heists all over the world, his next target is Mumbai, India. The case is given to ACP Jai and Ali. Helping them put the pieces of the puzzle together is ACP Shonali Bose [Bipasha Basu], Jai's college mate, now a police officer in her own right. For the last two years, Shonali has been tracking these amazing thefts and is now an expert on this thief, who no one has seen. Once in Mumbai, Mr. A finds his match in Sunehri [Aishwarya Rai], a petty yet clever thief. She makes him an offer he finds very hard to refuse. A partnership! Aryan gives it some though and chooses to accept. And so the game begins, a game of cat and mouse, a game of good v/s bad.

Music:
Listening to the soundtrack before the film, in honesty with the original Dhoom soundtrack to compare to, it didn't really capture me - the only plus was hearing the Dhoom theme music again, That said, Krazy Kiya Re manages to etch into my memory as I find myself humming it the following few days. The rest held little to no impact on me.

'Dhoom Again' as the opening credits picturised on Hrithik is superb and watching it I can revoke the above statement with regards to it. Thankfully it falls inro the category where once in a while its the visual to a song that makes it so much more than its audio avtar. Bravo to the choreography of Shiamak Davar, definitely one to watch out for.

The same once more with 'Krazy Kiya Re' picturised on Aishwarya Rai, this time it is Vaibhavi Merchant's choreography that makes her sizzle on the silver screen much to contrast with her most recent appearance as Umrao Jaan, this one shows that she certainly isn't limited to being glamorous in traditional attire.

'Touch Me' is just plain annoying, plain passable, in that you don't remember it for its audio, but thankfully the narrative is moving along as you watch it so the time has not been a total waste. 'My Name is Ali' resembling 'Dilbara' from the orginal Dhoom picturised on Uday Chopra, again passable, less irritating.

And then we have the surprise number 'Dil Laga Na', its just hard not to tap your feet to it and enjoy how colourful it is, even though from the narrative perspective - totally pointless. Going back to the soundtrack after having seen the film, 3 out of 5 are now likable which isn't bad going.

Review
Right from the word GO as we see the start of the film, Hrithik's first heist in Namibia; the robbing of a crown from a moving train to his next target (robbing a precious diamond from a museum in Mumbai) to the theft in Jamnagar where Hrithik and Aish come face to face for the first time, the film sets the mood. These thieves mean business and that they are ultra cool ding what they do.

That said, what worked for Dhoom was the fact that the cat and mouse chase seemed intense. In this sequel I found no real such tension. The thieves here were far cleverer than the cops leaving them miles behind at every step. Its only at intermission point that you feel the cops may have an upper hand, and even if you study that carefully afterwards, its a huge screwup on the cop's part.

Also, Abhishek was cool in Dhoom, whatever happened here? They managed to maintain Ali's character with the dreams of him his wife his many children and his motorbike, but Jai no longer is clean shaven, no longer wears cool shades, no longer really intimadates Ali or anyone else for that matter.

If the first hour focuses on the cat-n-mouse game, the second hour changes tracks as it transforms into the love story. This is no bad thing since the scenes between Uday and Bipasha #2 are cute, the ones between Hrithik and Ash build up slowly and are integral to the overall crux of the climax.

The final showdown seemed a little out of pace, after the huge gaps between the cat and mouse, when this super-thief manages to get away clean each and every time, how come this time there is a chase and they come face to face, (would it be because we've hit the pre-climax and its been 2 hours already??) .. but this is forgivable I suppose.

The one and only reason is the interweaved scenes of the intense relationship between Sunehri and Mr. A which are well penned and executed superbly that it outshines the blemishes to quite an extent.

Performances:
Just as director Sanjay Gadhvi recently said on a live chat, the USP (universal selling point) of this flick is the chemistry between Hrithik and Aish' and he's absolutely right. Can not fault these two. I personally am a little unsure about the tanned look but - who am i to judge?

Uday Chopra plays the comic relief & slightly annoying Ali to the Tee just as he did in the first, I wouldn't have thought I'd have to say this but its a shame how small a part he actually got in this. Perhaps he should see to not taking the Salman Khan route of rippping up his shirt at every opportunity though.

Rimi Sen is merely there for the continuity factor I guess, her small bitpart as the pregnant wife of Jai reflects continuity & nothing else, since we see no chemistry, in fact we are led to believe there is more chemistry between Shonali and Jai as opposed to this husband and wife pair.

Bipasha is just about okay as Shonali (the cop), but is livelier as the twin sister Monali and Ali's love interest, both pointless characters in my opinion and so its no surprise the actress has little scope to excel.

Overall Impressions
The plusses: From the deserts of Namibia to the backwaters of Goa, the mean streets of Mumbai and the ancient forts of Rajasthan and finally to Rio, Brazil, the locales are stunning. The performances are top-notch as far as their scope can be.

The negatives: The writing. The heroes Jai and Ali are rellegated to the back seat for most of this. Its simply a showcase for Hrithik to be cool.

Do the plusses outweigh the negtives??
I'm not so sure. I would say, if this is your first hindi flick, know that there are better ones out there. So ..sure go watch it, its a decent enough brainless action flick of the john woo ilk - just don't expect more than that, else you're likely to be disappointed. 6 out of 10

A snippet of another review that I agreed with:
Hrithik's casting as the antagonist can be accurately called a masterstroke. He's the actual star of DHOOM 2, the real scene stealer. In fact, you can't imagine any other actor enacting the cool robber with such precision. If there's anyone who's bound to benefit the maximum from DHOOM 2, it's Hrithik. ~ IndiaFM