Sure to leave you with a bad case of acidity.

Grade: C-

Acid Factory

Indian Release Date: 09/10/09
CBFC Classification:  U/A
Running Length: 1 Hour 44 Minutes

Cast: Fardeen Khan, Irrfan Khan, Manoj Bajpayee, Aftab Shivdasani, Danny Denzongpa, Dia Mirza, Dino Morea, Gulshan Grover, Neha
Director: Suparn Verma
Screenplay: Sanjay Gupta, Suparn Verma, Milind Gadagkar, And Saurabh Shukla
Cinematography: Sahil Kapoor
Music: Shamir Tandon, Manasi Scott, Gourav Dasgupta, Bappa Lahiri

What if you had no recollection of who you are? What if you didn’t know if you’re a good guy or a bad guy? Would your actions in such a scenario reflect the purest sense of morality you possess? On what basis would you put your trust in a stranger? Would you be willing to risk your life for someone you don’t even know in a situation you have little knowledge about? These are some of the themes & questions posed not by the movie Acid Factory, but by the thriller Unknown (2006) from which Suparn Verma & Sanjay Gupta have ripped off their plot from.

Serial-plot-ripper Sanjay Gupta is back to doing what he does best, copying plots from international movies to make “slick” desi versions of the same, though he’s only the producer (& writer) here. The task of directing this flick falls on another hack called Suparn Verma, who’s previous effort Ek Khiladi Ek Hasina (2005) was a hodge-podge of no less than three different Hollywood productions. Unknown wasn’t great in it’s own right but at least it had a far more convincing & intelligent tale than this inferior copy.

A man (Fardeen Khan) wakes up in a deserted factory & has absolutely no recollection of who he is or what is he doing in this place. He tries to escape only to find the door electronically locked & all the windows sealed off. There are other people in the factory (Danny Denzongpa, Manoj Bajpayee, Aftab Shivdasani, Dino Morea, and Dia Mirza) who too have lost their memory, or are some of them lying? It’s soon figured out that a gas leak in the acid factory caused this form of amnesia. But the question remains as to why is someone tied to a chair or why is another guy shot & handcuffed & to add to the confusion a man by the name of Kaizer (Irrfan Khan) keeps on calling them with instructions for specific people. It is in piecing the puzzle together from whatever they can gather from the phone calls they learn that two of them are hostages & the others are the kidnappers, but they still don’t know their roles in this game. In the meanwhile outside, Kaizer is busy collecting the ransom while a police detective (Gulshan Grover) tries to track him down.

The plot is largely a rehash of Unknown (though some credible changes have been made) with a strong emphasis on the mystery of the identities rather than any psychological themes arising from the situation. One major plot twist is completely killed off since the identity of one of the characters & his true motive is completely revealed from the first frame itself, thus negating any suspense the script tries to pull off later. The flashback sequences intercut into the plot kill off most of the suspense which the current scenario creates & serve little purpose other than to pad up the short running length & cover up for the sloppy screenplay.

The action scenes are stylishly shot by Bollywood standards but are dumb even by dumb-action-movie standards. Scenes like the one in which Manoj Bajpayee driving a huge truck mows down a street full of cars & each car explodes simply on being scraped seems ridiculous beyond reason, it’s almost like explosion-porn. One of the cars is already in flames before the truck even crashes into it. Other scenes too like Kaizer’s car chase with the cops or even the climatic shootout have a certain amount of panache but have no logic or tension whatsoever.

In spite of the story being set in South Africa every major character is an Indian. I’ve yet to understand the logic behind setting all these tales in foreign countries & make all the characters Indian who somehow are well entrenched in the local community, yet don’t have a hint of accent, have no sense of local fashion, they speak in Hindi to the local populace, who seem to understand it with amazing clarity. Setting them as Indian goons in a foreign country seems even funnier simply because come on, lets be honest when have we ever heard of an ultra-stylish gang of Indian thugs operating in a foreign country. I know its all fantasy & I’m supposed to take it with a pinch of salt but movie after movie showing the same thing gets a little hard to digest.

Fardeen Khan seems to be improving (at a snail’s pace) as an actor every year, maybe in another decade or so he might actually give a good performance. The stiffness & bobble-head syndrome he had been suffering from before seem to have been replaced by a quiet confidence for this role & his dialogue delivery has gotten clearer too. Manoj Bajpayee & Irrfan Khan seem to be having the most fun with their characters & get the only few good lines in the film. Dino Morea & Aftab Shivdasani sleep walk through their roles with Dino Morea overdoing his “cool-guy” routine. Dia Mirza tries to play a ‘tough-as-nails’ character but comes across as nothing more like a hissy, fit throwing teenager. Danny Denzongpa, Gulshan Grover & Neha are wasted in insignificant roles.

Acid Factory has a basic plot which is interesting, but it’s not original. It has ludicrous but slick actions scenes which have been done more competently in countless other movies. If the South African scenery (which there is barely any here) is something I want to see, I’d rather catch a documentary on ‘Travel & Living’. The actors do just about an adequate job, but I’ve definitely seen them do far better elsewhere. So what does Acid Factory have for me that makes it worth my time? The answer is nothing really but if your thing happens to be a slick & fast paced no-brainer Hindi action movie, clocking at much less than two hours then this is perfectly mediocre material for you.

Final Verdict: Sure to leave you with a bad case of acidity.

Grade: C-
 

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