INTRIGUING BUT UNl=INISMED...

Dh Oo M3

STARRING: Aamir Khan, Katrina Kaif, Abhishek Bachchan, Uday Chopra

DIRECTOR: Vijay Krishna Acharya *** 0/''r here is a secret that th i s intriguing film springs at us mid -point. Alas, the secret, if one may ca ll it that, only contours the fi lm's most well-known fact: this is an Aamir Khan show all the way. And he gets to give his most overthe--top performance, some of which looks like a dig at Shah Rukh Khan's My Name Is Khan, since, hold your breath, Dharmesh Darshan's Mela.

Okay let's say it out l oud there are two Aamir Khans in Dhoom 3 Twin brothers out to have some serious fun at the cost of the city of Chicago where the cops, we get to know, are so dumb they need help from their Indian counterparts Wh i ch is really ironica l when considered in the context of present-d ay politica l relations between India and America

But this, as we k now, is Chicago as seen through the eyes ofthe architects of the Dhoom fran chise Director Vijay Krishna Acharya who helms this avatar of Dhoom furnishes a fabulous style to the proceedings The frames are beautifully lit. Sudeep Chatterjee's cinematography knows, recognises, acknowledges and records beauty in every form, from the architecture to Katrina Kaif.

The preambl e with Jackie Shroff p l aying a magician on the skids, is done up in shades of shimmering discontent suggesting a deep fracture in the p l ot separating the haves from the have-naughties.

A sense of twin kle-eyed mischief never abandons the narrative

And t h ank God for a sense of humour to back up the boytoys t h at the grownups seem to be playing with. Gimmicky props are constantly brought up for consideration. Sleek motorcycles that t urn into moto rboats in green - blue cana l s, magicians'tricks which show up at any given moment, twins who swap ro l es without warning

There is a tremendous sense of fun and games in the goings- on But there is al so a deep sense of tragedy underlining the playfu l ness Sombre ramifications accentu ate the bevy of bacchanalia.

The finely framed-out film finally comes to a very sad conclusion where the theme of the tw i n is seen as a mirror-image that's wiped out under pressure

Aamir hol ds the key to the film's efficacy. And how much you like th is segment of the Dhoom franchise depends enti rely on how well you accept Aamir's over-emphasised performan ce, ceaseless smi rk, constantly arch ed eyebrows and al l. I was left w ith very mixed feelings about the performance

Abhishek Bachchan as Jai, Aamir's lawenforcing adversary tries to offset Aamir's double -edged swat with some straight faced acting Uday Chopra as Abhishek's sidekick Ali is hopelessly uni nteresting And the Jai-Ali nexus is celebrated in some reall y dumbed - down action borrowed from Prabhudheva's cinema

Katrina Kaif has a ser i es of breathtaking dances to perform She jumps, glides, somersau lts and gambols until we fl i p for her graceful moves She al so has a very interesting date- sequence with the shy, stammering Aam i r-avatar where she confidently ties his shoelaces for him quipping, "Nice excuse to bring a girl on her knees on the first date"

There is a bed -rock of warm humour underlini ng the p lot. The director knows how to juice the characters' emotions without spi ll ing t h e sentiments all across the frames. Messy, Dhoom 3 is not It i s a well-packaged enrapturing drama with beautiful ly designed seq u ences

Technical l y Dhoom 3 is one-up on the first and second instal ments of the series There are beautifull y layered frames, shots where the lighti ng creates the afterglow that fol l ows m o ments of spi r itua l revelation Though that sort of depth is just an illusion and a mirage in this film, like the magici an's trick which defines the film's plot.

Dhoom 3 is an i ntri guing piece of work : sl ender, suppl e, sma rt and subt l e; and yet helmed by a central performance that screams for attention.

Such is the irony of li fe.

SUBHASH K JHA