This movie is supposed to be a comedy, though it’s cacophony for the most part with assorted dons, fake cops, real cops, and general unexplained madness.

Ideally a film like this doesn’t merit a review.

It’s hard though when you’re constantly made aware that these loose, sometimes fully disjointed pieces of a zanjeer (series of events) – with several unexplained and missing scenes — is the reinterpretation of the 1973 classic

This is probably the first Bollywood film that looks closely at India’s political involvement outside of its own shores. The director (Shoojit Sircar: Yahaan, Vicky Donor) ably spins this as a war film, visually referenced to near perfection, yet scales things down to the details of a tight espionage thriller set among R&AW agents between Jaffna and New Delhi.

Walk very gently into this film, if you must. There is enough plywood used for the sets and so much plastic around for performances that if you’re not careful, the whole picture might just collapse on your head.

Given the trailer, viewers in the theatre will probably look out for two things: lots of crackerjack humour, equal amounts of earth-shaking, gravity-defying assault on human bodies, cars, jeeps, and even the train. Throughout, at least I couldn’t spot a single moment that had me even mildly chuckling. The stunts and car-nage is limited to two sequences, which is a small fraction for a film that clocks over 140 minutes. So should you feel cheated, sitting in this loud, chugging train to Chennai? Perhaps.

This is a dark film. It is quite different from Bollywood romp and masti of half-demented heroes (Akshay Kumar, John Abraham) in Desi Boyz (2011) that delved on a similar theme.

Spies inhabit a shadowy world. They plot long-term moves, stay under cover for a living, and quietly run for their life when necessary, which is quite often. Any exposure equals death. Soon as their plot to abduct the don fails, these fellows just don’t know what to do or where to go. Neither does the film, sadly.

His first film Udaan (2010) was both a commercial success and an entry at Cannes. It’s the kind of reception Bollywood films would get back in the 1950s (Awaara, Do Bhiga Zameen ….). Those films exuded a certain self-assured thehraav, and a love for language, words, even quieter emotions. As does this film.

In a weird sort of way, The Great Gatsby is to America what Devdas is to Indians. Deep down, they are both shallow books, which is one of the reasons they make for great tent-pole entertainment.