'Phantom' review: Promising premise gone south

Genre: Action
Rating : ** 1/2
Cast: Saif Ali Khan, Katrina Kaif, Sabyasachi Chakrabarty
Director: Kabir Khan
Language: Hindi

To be fair, Kabir Khan's Phantom comes with the tagline 'A story you wish were true'. Perhaps a better one would have been 'A story you wish were more believable.'

The film is an adaptation of Hussain Zaidi's book, Mumbai Avengers, which focuses on retribution for the 26/11 Mumbai terror attacks, and keeps the details close to the actual events including the names of the terror suspects.

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Khan plays Daniyal Khan, an ex-Indian Army officer, who has been unfairly court-martialled, and wants to win back the respect of his men. Kha;n sets out to kill the masterminds behind the terror attacks on Mumbai with the help of security analyst Nawaz Mistry (Kaif). This covert operation is overseen by the RAW chief (Chakrabarty) and his enthusiastic sub-ordinates without permission from the organisation's superiors.

While the sentiment of meting out justice on-screen for real-life tragedies is commendable, Kabir Khan gets carried away and overdoes the hackneyed treatment. Khan and Kaif, as the poker-faced vigilantes, seem out of depth. The terrorists, meanwhile, are supposed to be the deadliest and most sought-after criminals in the world, but turn out to be fairly easy targets - they are available on the phone and their hide-outs seem to be down the road from Khan's hotel in Pakistan.

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Seemingly inspired by Hollywood movies where agents/spies nail their targets in smooth style using cutting-edge technology, Khan is seen placing bombs in microphones and relying on the overused 'deadly-syringe' routine. The execution of these sequences makes the film look like a 70s rip-off. It's a throwback of sorts to see the hero comically gunning down despotic militant leaders in the middle of a crowded street and running off with a machine gun in hand against a raging fire.

Kaif, who has few lines and a couple of teary scenes, looks pretty and doesn't have much to do. Meanwhile Khan moves between London, Chicago, Beirut, Mumbai and Pakistan trying to find some credibility to his poorly-written character. The supporting cast attempts to add intensity to the narrative, but delivers clichéd performances, making Phantom a tiring experience.

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