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'Phantom': Simplistic thriller

'Phantom' undoes a good chunk of goodwill that director Kabir Khan earned with Bajrangi Bhaijaan, writes Deepa Gauri.

DIRECTOR KABIR KHAN, riding high on the wave of Bajrangi Bhaijaan, proves with Phantom that a good film is as much a writer's craft as its director's vision.
With a plodding story, simplistic script and some unintentionally hilarious dialogues, Phantom ultimately finds its rescue only in the skills of Kabir Khan.
No doubt Phantom and BB belong to two genres and comparing the two is a futile exercise. But the problem lies in the milieu: Both are set amidst the ongoing rivalry of India and Pakistan.
There was no playing to the gallery jingoism in BB. The people were real, their concerns were real and there was no room for ambiguity in how the characters behaved. If BB evoked the possibility of peace, Phantom breeds mistrust with its utterly simplistic approach.
No wonder then that Pakistan found it befitting to be banned. It confirms every mutual suspicion that ordinary Indians and Pakistanis are taught to believe.
If cinema can unite people and nations, as Kabir Khan said after the success of BB, it would be interesting to hear how it is going to defend Phantom's rhetoric.
The incidents of 26/11 in Mumbai that left 160 dead and the sheer trauma that India suffered for four days is painful, no doubt. It is not something that people will forget quickly.
But when you take a leaf from such a disturbing incident, you do not reduce it to wishful thinking. You do not make assumptions and plotlines that will make the world laugh. Phantom, based on Hussain Zaidi's book Mumbai Avengers, does exactly that.
We have seen better films on cross-border terrorism and spy drama in the more recent Baby and D-Day but Phantom becomes a cross of these and the over-the-top Sunny Deol starrers by director Anil Sharma.
So we have a feisty patriotic solider Daniyal Khan (Saif Ali Khan), who has been discharged from the force under ignominious circumstances, being coaxed by India's to spy network to bring vigilante justice against the masterminds of 26/11.
It would have been fine but for the effortless cinematic manner in which it all unfolds. Dropping real-life names, making sly cross-references to terror groups, and taking the camera to 'Syria' and 'Jordan' does not make for an international-style thriller no matter how good your intentions are.
The references to the Middle East and showing a bullet-ridden 'Welcome to Syria' roadside board also show a lack of deep understanding of the geo-politics of the conflict.
And none of these is made any easier with having Katrina Kaif as Nawaz Mistry who is supporting Daniyal on the mission. Can anyone be more deadpan?
Despite Saif Ali Khan's earnest attempt - although he too is monotone in his expressions - the failed casting is one reason Phantom loses a lot of its strength to convince.
Phantom's strengths, however, are some fantastically shot action scenes; it also has nail-biting suspense moments. But ultimately, given a deeply anguishing event against which it is set, it never becomes anything in the league of movies such as The Hamburg Cell.
Much like the shallow and bits-and-parts brilliant New York, also made by Kabir Khan on the incidents of 9/11, Phantom is another attempt by Bollywood to step into the big shoes of Hollywood. If only the script was better!