Movie Review: Kabul Express

It was new years eve and we were looking at watching a movie before we hit Brigades and MG Road and eventually a food joint. My choices were Bhagam Bhag and Kabul Express. Since Bhagam Bhag is a rehashed Mallu movie by the remake specialist Priyadarshan, I gave it the miss and decided on Kabul Express. I somehow have grown to respect Aditya Chopra a lot and with an interesting title like it has, there is definitely bound to be some good stuff in it, but not to be...

The film starts off with two totally naive reporters (John Abraham and Arshad Warsi) trying to get an interview of a Talib and hence in Afghanistan. They seem to quite easily meet the right set of people to be able to get to the elusive Talib. Anywayz, though they get very close to one, they barely escape with their lives. Then quite coincidentally, the same Talib gets hold of their convoy and orders them to take him to Pakistan. During the course of the story we get to know that this Talib is actually a member of the Pakistani army on deputation working with Taliban. Then on the movie tries to show how India is the evergreen hero, the people of Pakistan are also nice people, the government of Pakistan is under force to desert their own men among the Taliban and how US is the villain. The story goes along expected lines and the supposed fun is that the movie is all real-time and unfolds within the course of a day. But there isn't enough happening to make you fell like its all in a day and that its exciting and that they are running out of time.

There is no real heroine in the movie and there are no songs either(though there is a soundtrack). The female US reporter is added in to dilute the otherwise overflowing testosterone and she is quite cute. I looked up on imdb and find she is not doing well in the entertainment industry in the west. I also quite surprisingly saw her in a song sequence in the Vijay starrer Tamil movie Sachin. In short she is just a filler with no real significance in the movie. The whole movie is more like a documentary with only Arshad Warsi in some comical pieces doing a good job.

All in all a disappointing fair and not worth the money. I rate it a 5.5 out of 10.

Whats next? Guru of course, finally releasing on the 12th of Jan!!