Dir. Sriram Raghavan
I am not a fan of action movies - fist fights, gunplay, and car chases just don't do it for me. If such spectacle is knit together by a strong story, presented with a sense of humor or style, I'm willing to squirm through such scenes and appreciate the larger payoff. Going into Sriram Raghavan's Agent Vinod, though, my expectations were low. Genre-wise, Agent Vinod is not the kind of movie I tend to enjoy in any language. To its credit, the movie turned out better than I feared it would be. But it lacks the sort of crackle that would make it more than a series of stunts hung on an overworn plot - and that would bring it it all the way to being a good movie.
A Russian arms dealer is killed, and his prized merchandise - a suitcase nuke - is up for auction. An Indian international spy, Agent Vinod (Saif Ali Khan), fresh from a narrow scrape in Afghanistan, is sent on the trail of the weapon before it can ignite a nuclear war between India and Pakistan. Armed only with some cryptic intelligence involving the number 242, Vinod heads to Morocco, where a rich international criminal named David Kazaan (Prem Chopra) is looking to get his hands on the bomb. Captured by Kazaan, Vinod meets Kazaan's personal Doctor, Ruby (Kareena Kapoor), who may or may not be a Pakistani terrorist and double agent. Vinod and Ruby's pursuit of the weapon takes them to Latvia, where an Indian officer known only as the Colonel (Adil Hussain) is working behind the scenes with Ruby. Vinod and Ruby follow the bomb's trail to Karachi and eventually to Delhi, where Ruby must confront the truth about the Colonel and Vinod must try to find the bomb before disaster strikes.
With its flashy gunfights, high-speed chases, and parade of exotic locations, Agent Vinod falls somewhere between the Mission: Impossible and James Bond franchises - and positions itself to be a franchise in its own right. The plot doesn't offer much that is fresh - rogue elements get hold of a deadly weapon, handsome loner agent kills many thugs on his way to preventing World War III, ho hum. A movie like this must rely on style to be worth seeing. And, Agent Vinod is not too bad in this respect. Saif Ali Khan is charismatic and looks good in slim-fitting pants. The movie's many locations - in addition to Morocco, Riga, and Delhi, there are scenes in St Petersburg and some other locales as well - are well-shot, atmospheric and even thrilling at times. In another nice set of touches, the movie makes several throwback nods to its 70s roots (it is a remake of a 1977 film). Kareena Kapoor's mujra with Maryam Zakaria, "Dil mera muft ka," is one such, evoking the 70s trope of the heroine setting up the climactic confrontation by distracting the bad guy with a dance. While far from expertly executed by Kareena Kapoor, it's still an entertaining and successful injection of nostalgic style.
But despite these nods in the direction of style, Agent Vinod fails to deliver as it could. As a whole, it just takes itself too darn seriously - there is not enough wit or humor to really drive the movie somewhere. The sense of humor that created the closing credits song "Pyar ki pungi" should have been put to work throughout. The film does show occasional flashes of cleverness - such as the introduction of Prem Chopra's character, Kazaan, the elegant Moroccan mafioso. Kazaan receives some news that sends him into a rage - "kill the bastards!" he orders his men, and storms into his house with fire in his eyes. The camera shows his face change from rage to horror to sadness, and after a long moment we see the reason for his emotional turmoil - his beloved pet camel lies lame and suffering, and Kazaan must put her down. This sequence is flawlessly timed and wrought with both tenderness and humor - it is by far the best executed moment of the movie. The rare scene like this in Agent Vinod is so terrific that it only casts into focus how flat and clunky and long the rest of the movie is.
In another of the film's stronger scenes, Vinod seduces a male courier to get access to Kazaan. This brief but excellent sequence, coming early in the movie, promises some depth - is it Vinod's ambiguous sexuality? Is it a measure of how far he would go, what outrageous deeds he would commit, in the name of completing his mission? But again, there is no payoff - nothing else that Vinod does is any more outrageous than what the standard interchangeable international spy character in any other number of movies would do. It is a missed opportunity to distinguish Agent Vinod - and Agent Vinod - from the rest of the genre landscape.
Kareena Kapoor is, as usual, serviceable as a used, and perhaps confused, free agent. She has a few strong moments but on the whole, doesn't add much. It might have been more interesting if Ruby and Vinod had actually joined forces and complemented each other in some way, rather than merely crossing paths repeatedly. Alas, if it weren't already completely clear, her character's fate makes explicit that Agent Vinod is Saif Ali Khan's franchise, not "Saifeena's".
There is more to be said about the film's ending - or rather, its three endings that seem to have been written by a committee in which each contributor wanted the movie to close on a different note. But this review is long enough - Agent Vinod may have dragged in its last quarter, but I don't wish to do the same.