The movie is housefull from the morning shos in multiplexes. No tickets are available at the booking counter. This shows the hype surrounded around “Race”. The are festivities around with long extended weekend. The hype is working its magic and opening is fabulous. Why there shall not be hype? It has gorgeous babes, hot male actors, foot tapping music, slick promos and the name promises an edge of the seat thriller. Apart from that its from thriller expert Abbas-Mustan. What if their last 2 movies failed due to week scripts….. the duo still commend a lot of cradibility for their entertaining thrillers like Gupt, Ajnabi, Soldier, etc. But can they spell their magic on the silverscreen this time? Does the film work?

And the good news is…..

YES! It works BIG TIME!

I wont dwelve into the story too much as its a suspense thriller and I won’t play spoil sport by revealling too much about the plot. I will give u a short brief to increase your curiosity about the movie. The movie is about 2 brothers and their girl friends (wives?). Ranveer (Saif Ali Khan) is a stylish businessman who is into business of horse racing. He has a stud farm and raunch house and all the luxuries money can buy. Apart from that he likes living on the edge and is big time into adventure sports. He loves his horses and his young brother Rajiv (Akshaye Khanna) and takes care of them a lot. Rajiv on the other hand is a alcoholic who keeps drinking all the time. Sophia (Katrina Kaif) is Ranveer’s secretary and right hand. Ranveer depend a lot on her for his office work. She secretely loves him but he does not understand that. He in turn loves a hot model Sonia (Bipasha Basu). At a party, Ranveer introduces Sonia to Rajiv and Rajiv falls in love with Sonia.

What happes next? Will Ranveer sacrifice his love for Rajiv or viceversa? Or will there be race between them to get their love? Is the movie all about this love or money? Watch it to get these answers. I promise, you will have good time.

Its a taught thriller and everything about the movie works great. The narration is brisk, the script is tight, the screenplay (Shiraz Ahmed) is lightening fast, engaging and entertaining.

Abbas-Mustan’s direction is crisp, sharp and keeps audience totally glued to their seats and eyes on the screen. There is not a single moment which is dull or feels like seen before. Thats the most commendable part of the movie that it has surprises every nook and corner of the story and your brains keeps overworking on the guessing part for whats next. However, the writer-directors are successfull in shocking you everytime. The only track left unused is that of Ranveer’s rival. It could have been used to add more suspense angle to the movie.

The cinematography (Ravi Yadav) is breathtaking from the opening shot of the movie. The heavenly locations of Durban, Dubai and India are beautifully picturised. The action sequences mind blowing (the accident shot, the car chase, etc). Editing (Hussain Burmawala) needs applause as its the ingredient which makes thrillers work.

Music (Pritam) of the movie is already hit. 3 songs are block busters. ‘Allah Duhai Hai’, ‘Touch Me’ are rocking and ‘Pehli Nazar Mein’ by Atif Aslam mesmerizes you. The choreography (Bosco-Caesar and Ganesh Acharya) is good and song picturization is apt. Background music (Salim-Sulaiman) is perfect.

Special mention shall be given to the dialog writer (Anuraag Prapanna, Jitendra Parmar) who makes the movie more enjoyable. The dialogs are funny, raunchy and edgy whereever required. Styling (Anaita Shroff Adajania) made the movie promos interesting and makes the movie what it is…. stylish, sleek thriller.

All these departments needed mention because they are outstanding in this movie. However, the last but not the least department of performances is a big plus point. Abbas-Mustan are successfull in extracting the best performance from every actor/actress/performer.

The best of the lot is Anil Kapoor. He time and again amuses us with his energy, comic timing, impressive body language. He essays role of the investigation officer and he does it the Karamchand way. Only instead of Gajar, he keeps eating different fruits in every scene. He also have a dumb secretary (Sameera Reddy) like Karamchand does. Anil Kapoor is the comic relief in this movie.

Saif Ali Khan impresses you by his style, acting and action. He looks hot and fits the role to the T. He looks the winner he is. Akshaye Khanna does the role of brat drunken brother with aplomb and makes you hate him for what he is on screen.

On the fair side, the females add the required jazz to this movie. Bipasha looks hot and does her role perfectly. Katrina Kaif looks gorgeous and acts well too.

So on the whole, this is more than value for the ticket money and you can buy lots of popcorns, coldrinks and still it will be more value for money.

BR Rating: **** (that’s 4 stars after so long)
BR Verdict: VERY GOOD!
BR Recommendations: Go watch it again and again with as many people as you can. It’s SUPER HIT!