Drona (2008)

How sad is this?

Good story, Not enough for a whole film

At first rather annoying in its heavy emphasis on reenactments, this movie ultimately proves fascinating, simply because the complicated, highly dramatic tale it tells still almost defies belief.

It's the kind of movie you'll want to see a second time with someone who hasn't seen it yet, to remember what it was like to watch it for the first time.

Abhishek Bachchan and Priyanka Chopra in a sword and sorcery movie from Bollywood? That's certainly something different for me, and having two leading stars in this movie definitely provided that additional boost to pick up the DVD for closer scrutiny. Alas for a fantasy film, there's nothing groundbreaking in its special effects, action sequences or story, and if some kind of benchmark was to be set, then this would likely be at the level of Krull, and even then, Krull had a more coherent and intriguing premises than Drona.In Goldie Behl's creation, Drona refers to the long lineage of kings entrusted to protect the Nectar of Immortality, which demigods of the universe had decided to hide on Earth, under the constant eye of their chosen protector. Adit (Abhishek Bachchan) is the latest descendant of Dronas, but is unaware of his innate ability as protector of the world. In what seemed to be some vast similarities to Harry Potter, he lives with mean relatives and becomes a punching bag for their bullying, until he's awakened by his protector of sorts, the woman-warrior Sonia (Priyanka Chopra).So it becomes a discovery of his lineage, abilities and destiny, but this development plods along so slowly, coupled with Bachchan's constant brooding as Drona, that it makes it really infuriating to follow, and not to mention countless of over-dramatic moments each time he discovers a little something about himself or his abilities, or even his wardrobe, sword and trusty super steed. And in order to push this Drona into action, it had taken the villainous wizard Riz Raizada (Kay Kay Menon) a diabolical scheme to freeze Drona's mom (Jaya Bachchan) into suspended animation, and thereafter some really convenient plot development that allows the audience to follow Drona around in a rescue mission of sorts.Drona's abilities actually don't come off as well-defined, and you would've wondered at the amazing ability of his to fight off his opponents through various wire-fu moves. Battle sequences on the whole were rather lacklustre, and the big train action sequence came off as rather clunky and clumsy, and strictly meant for the kids. Costumes were rather average, and I thought Priyanka had to endure some really ridiculous outfits that tried too hard to make her look sexy yet fearsome as a warrior. The rare saving graces in the film were the numerous graphical and animated stills that get juxtaposed with the live action scenes. Those were really gorgeous to gawk at, together with some of the really ambitious special effects used to jazz up scenes, but a pity that the same can't be said of the film proper. And of course, Kay Kay Menon seemed to have a field day with a villain with a penchant for monologues through puppetry, and the creation of countless of clones to do his evil bidding and fight battles on his behalf. For a villain he had some of the best moments in being always one step ahead of the hero, until of course the decisive moment in the finale which was a real disappointment.No doubt Drona tried hard to be a one of a kind film in a genre seldom seen from Bollywood, but it contains more misses than hits, and lacked that fundamental quality that it's always about the story first, then special effects and action second. But as they say, the only way to go from here for this genre in Bollywood, is up. Watch only if you have some children to entertain.

I'll probably be called 'promoter' of this film, or 'friend' of the director for writing this review as has been the case with the people who liked the film and dared to express themselves here. But the negative reviews here and from everywhere forces me to pen down my own thoughts about Drona. Let me start by saying that if there is any competitor for the LOR series (Loved them) or even Harry Potter series(stupid is what I call them), its this Film. Drona. A very brave attempt in introducing a subject untouched by Bollywood, but experimented with and explored by Hollywood. Drona is the story of a common man who realizes that he is the guard of 'Amrit', the potion of eternal life. His fight to save it from the hand of Asura (The demon) is the story of Drona. Abhisek Bachchan is quite convincing in this role, first as the common man, and then as the commander of Super-powers. He realizes his own strength and potential. Priyanka Chopra is beautiful as usual. We do not see women being action-heroines in Hindi Films. She dared to be different and how well! KK, as the 'abnormal' incarnation of Asura gives another awesome performance. Let me also say here that the people who are hitting KK for his 'worst acting ever' does not even realize the character he plays. He is supposed to be comical and dangerous at the same time. He is supposed to be insane. He is the incarnation of evil. What did you expect? Gabbar Singh? The story is tight set. You will not (or should I say should not?) feel lax at any point, expect for the unnecessary song-and-dance routines. There are two. Which bring me to the negative point of the film. If the director had to be courageous enough to make such a movie he should also have the guts to cut-off the totally unnecessary song-and-dance to please the front row audiences. The background music is fitting for this kind of a film. The music kind of introduces the concept of 'Theme' into this movie, which is NOT the case with most Bollywood ventures. Let me end by saying that if you have your expectations set right and if you like films in the line of LOR, this is definitely for you. Now let the bashing begin from the members! I'm ready to take them with a smile. 'I' loved Drona. Period.

Dear Goldie, I know you or one of your agents will read these boards to get feedback on the film. So I am addressing this to you personally.Let me summarise my personal sentiments for your film: it made me cringe, it embarrassed me, it made me laugh at it's stupidity, not a kind of good laugh, more of a laughing with disgust. I was also very bored and waiting for the film to end. Had I not been watching it with family and friends, I would have walked out.As I am talking to a director I am going to give you feedback on each aspect your film fails on and and suggestions.STORY: I read in your interview on how this story was so special to you. Perhaps you should have submitted your script to a script doctor before submitting to your producers. It seemed like it was your first draft It was one of the worst scripts I have had the misfortune of seeing recently and I nominate it personally for the Bollywood Razzie awards. Your whole setting is fake and unconvincing; none of your characters are developed; the story is not thought out. You know I seriously got the impression that what you did was watch a few dozen Hollywood fantasy films, pick and mix whatever you liked and made a collage, not a film.All you did was lift the common Hollywood quest story for immortal elixir, plastered Indian names on it, and called it Indian. Riz Razada seems like a reject from a c-grade Hollywood film. Everything about him, his look, his mannerisms, his lair, his henchmen are completely foreign.Your super hero is a moping loser. The first thought that came to my mind was when I saw your superhero was, "No, seriously, this Cinderella-man is the superhero" but I gave you a chance. I figured you were going for the loser realised hes special plot. In actual fact it turned out into the superhero with special needs plot. In the beginning he is looked after by a flower petal! He is saved by a woman who has more testoterone than him; in the later parts he turns into a mommy's boy who gets walked over left, right and centre and in the end he get killed - oh and then saved by a dues-ex-machine with him suddenly coming alive again despite being impaled by a sword.Your superhero was pathetic. A passive pushover that just grunts and makes ugly faces, and to make matters worse looks absolutely ridiculous in his costume, displaying Mr Bachchan in the most unflattering light. He never actually earns any credit as a hero - let alone a superhero.DIRECTION: If your screenplay deserves a Razzie, so does your direction. You totally destroyed the film.The excessive and monotonous use of slow motion. It became so frequent it was predictable. Every time the hero appears, cue slow motion and take several shots from every angle of the hero posing with his sword raised making angry faces(which is what the hero ever did) Tacky costumes and sets rejected from a Hollywood film. I don't think you even thought about how UGLY and fake the sets and the costumes looked. They were also very boring and empty. I wondered where were the people in your film, and when you had people such as Rizada's fans, you made them look ridiculous too. Then we also the ridiculous Gandalf-caricature in the end. I know what you were thinking, because it is a fantasy film you can go all-out with the bizarre, but this just betrays what an amateur you are. A fantasy film is not an excuse to make everything look ridiculous. That only reveals your lack of thought that went into making film.SPECIAL EFFECTS: The special effects are as crude and underdeveloped as everything else in your film. You should have at least got this right, this was your trump card. At least you could have won the tag, "Great special effects, awful film" instead you win the tag, "tacky special effects, awful film" What is worse that despite having such tacky effects you flaunt them. The beginning with Rizada cloning himself looked like it was from an 80's film. The electricity effects looked laughably out of date. Perhaps you should have consulted the SFX technicians on the other Bollywood turkey Love Story 2050, they at least got the electricity effects to decent standards.The car-chase scene with some cut-in shots of a CGI car looked like they were from an older racing computer game.The particle effects looked like they were the test version of The Mummy. The sand storm faces in particular were very crude.Other graphics look decidedly video-game graphics.You said the special effects had been in post-production for a year and you hired Hollywood technicians. Then why do you such sub-standard results? Did you lack the budget, the experience, the software? Somebody is going to have to explain why the effects were so substandard. Again, why did you have to lift special effects? What is wrong filmmakers of your ilk? SONGS: I am not going to say too much, they are like everything in your film, awful and misfits.ACTING: Well, you might have actually destroyed Abhishek Bachchan and Kay and Kay's acting careerIn short Golide, don't be surprised if you are nominated and win for nearly every category at the Bollywood Razzies this year. A really pathetic film that would have been rejected by virtually every Hollywood producer even at the script stage. Bollywood producers are going to have become more discerning. Nobody wants to watch such rubbish. I doubt you will get funds for a sequel, this franchise is not going anywhere.

To those folks who haven't watched this movie....please do NOT watch this movie. The thing which i do not understand IS that why do Indian directors lack the vision and imagination required to make a fantasy movie!!! I can't even give the movie some credits for a nice attempt because a decent attempt would have resulted in the movie ten times better then this one!! ZERO IN ACTING...ZERO IN COSTUMES...ZERO IN ANIMATION..ZERO IN ORIGINALITY..and the sets look so artificial that even a 2 year old can tell the difference.There should be an option of rating 0/10 on IMDb,b'cause this movie deserves a BIG 0.