Without you I'd be like a monkey without sense.

Dhoom 2
Sanjay Gadhvi 2006 India
Starring: Abhishek Bachchan, Uday Chopra, Hrithik Roshan, Aishwarya Rai, Bipasha Basu

Regular readers of this blog may have seen a post I wrote several weeks back raving about the hysterical visuals and hilarious parodies of the Bollywood film Dhoom. At the time the person who recommended it to me also told me that the sequel, Dhoom 2, was much better than the first film and, as good as the original was, they were right. Everything that was brilliant and utterly ridiculous is back including Bachchan using the codename Vijay, the name of the character synonymous with his legendary father. Also along for the ride are two of my favourite Indian actors, Hrithik Roshan and Aishwarya Rai, and both are a joy to watch. Rai has graduated from being hired at least partially on the merit of her Miss World win to being someone who's always reliable for a good performance however bad the film might be and Roshan has proved himself time and time again as one of the most versatile actors in contemporary Bollywood, excelling in a wide range of roles from a superhero in the Krrish series to a dance teacher on the run in Kites to a quadriplegic magician begging for the right to die (with Rai as his nurse) in the controversial but beautiful Guzaarish. He even makes fun of this reputation here in his role as a master of disguise, at one point linking up with Rai to dress up as two of the bearded and bespectacled dwarves from Snow White. The opening scene is even better with Roshan actually stealing the British crown from the Queen as she plays with her grandsons aboard a train, and if that sounds ridiculous it's because it is. But it's not all just comedy, Gadhvi having upgraded things from the original to include a genuinely affecting love story and later a dramatic Russian roulette scene between Rai and Roshan. There's even a brilliantly twisty, visually stunning ending that begins atop a waterfall and closes in Fiji. The only bad point is once again the terrible subtitles that seem to affect a lot of Indian releases. It really can't be that hard to find a half-decent fucking translator can it? I mean, seriously. In better news, Dhoom 3 is out on Monday and I'm happier than a woodpecker in a lumber yard. I'm even doing a little dance. Maybe. (I'm not.)