Abbas-Mustan need to RACE up now

Thriller directors Abbas Mustan may still be the most wanted ones in the genre of suspense and thrillers but their quality is going down with every successive movie. I happened to see one of their earlier movies(their first suspense thriller) Khiladi on my DVD. The movie is simply mindblowing with the right elements of comedy and suspense. No wonder, it was a big hit when it released in 1992. iT still would have been a huge hit if it released now also. Khiladi is one of the best suspense movies in India. No one who has seen the movie for the first time can ever guess that the killer is Anant Mahadevan(okay I said it, big deal! Everyone has watched Khiladi)

From a high on content, musical suspense Khiladi, Abbas Mustan followed it up with Baazigar in 1993 which pirouetted Shahrukh Khan to star status and earned him his first Filmfare Best Actor Award. Baazigar was good enough and the next Daraar(starring Arbaaz Khan who won the Best Filmfare Villain Award in 1996) was also passably fine. But after every successive movie like Soldier,Ajnabee Humraaz , Aitraaz; Abbas Mustan’s quality in terms of content(read humor and thrills) has decreased. Yes, there is good music, there are fine performances(most of the actors like SRK, Arbaaz Khan and Akshaye Khanna have given their best and award winning performances in Abbas Mustan’s movies), there are some chills n thrills here and there, but they are nowhere close to the Khiladi effect of 1992.

If you watch Abbas Mustan’s last few movies like the stupid Taarzan the Wonder Car, the illogical 36 China Town and the unforgivable Naqaab, you cannot believe that these are the same guys who once made Khiladi and Baazigar. In fact, Naqaab, Humraaz and 36 China Town had extremely boring first halves with an excuse of a thriller in the second half. The director duo Abbas Mustan are relying on special effects, raaz-mattazz, glamor, sexual chemistry etc but they are missing out on their core element-thrills and humor. Well Race can never be a Khiladi…but we hope Abbas Mustan get back to their business of making “racy” thrillers. They better speed up their act in RACE.