Dus - Movie Review
Published: June 28, 2010
Starring Sanjay Dutt, Shilpa Shetty, Abhishek Bachchan, Zayed Khan, Suniel Shetty, Esha Deol
Sometimes confusing movies are good—The Usual Suspects (1995), for example. But just because a movie is confusing doesn't mean it's good, contrary to conventional wisdom in Hollywood. In fact, the success of The Usual Suspects may be to blame for the spate of American films in the last 15 years that don't make a lick of sense and were lauded to the moon (think 2005's Syriana). Unfortunately, Bollywood fell victim to this trend with Dus—not a remake of The Usual Suspects, but it has the same premise.
The latter is the kind of movie that can only work once—because the ending can only be a surprise once. And the brilliance of The Usual Suspects lies in the fact that the surprise clears up the confusion. Not so in Dus.
An anti-terrorism government agency in India—that is inexplicably about to be closed in today's day and age—must stop an attack that will kill tens of thousands of people. In the meantime, a bunch of unexplained characters commit various crimes. Obviously, it's all related, but the climactic explanation is as hard to follow as the events leading up to it. Unbelievable coincidences and inconsistencies abound. And why are all these beefy rednecks in cahoots with terrorists? Why does the worried-sick head agent send two bickering bozos to Canada to catch the bad guys instead of alerting Canadian authorities? Why do said bozos allow an unstable Canadian cop to join them? Why is there all this we-can't-be-together tension between the love interests when there's nothing stopping them from being together? And why, oh why, is girl-next-door actress Esha Deol playing a villainous vamp again? (See 2004's Dhoom for another egregious example of her miscasting.)
At least, Sanjay Dutt and Shilpa Shetty are styling as head agent Siddhant and his underling Aditi. The very feminine Shetty looks cool and ironic in riot gear, cargo pants, and neckties, as does the uber-macho Dutt in sleek designer duds. Dutt gives the role his troubled, anxious, wrenching all. There are some great action shots, and the countdown-to-explosion ending is suspenseful as well as unpredictable—but mostly because you know anything can happen in this mess of a film.
Dus is rated Skip.
Community - News - Reviews - Commentary - About
