Critics’ Verdict: ‘Dishoom’ Is All Style No Substance

Check out how critics are reacting to John Abraham and Varun Dhawan’s ‘Dishoom’.

Film: Dishoom
Director: Rohit Dhawan
Cast: John Abraham, Varun Dhawan, Jacqueline Fernandez

Excerpts from reviews of Dishoom:

Dishoom’s premise has promise – two mismatched police officers join hands to rescue India’s cricketing jewel from a kidnapping – but Desi Boyzdirector Rohit Dhawan simply cannot get the film to jumpstart despite all the elements being in place. There are quite a few empty vessels in a movie named after a uniquely Indian onomatopoeic coinage. Among them is John Abraham’s Kabir, a grouchy Mumbai police officer who is shaped like a GI Joe Hasbro toy and has a dim view of the universe because his girlfriend cheated on him with his best friend. The ending suggests a sequel, and perhaps the next movie will feature better writing, less amateurish action, sharper comedy, and a greater reason to exist.

Nandini Ramnath (Scroll.in)

Director Rohit Dhawan, after the eminently forgettable Desi Boyz, has no other agenda but to Dishoom the viewer senseless. In the name of entertainment, presumably, kuchh bhi karega. In retrospect, the action head-bangers of Abbas-Mustan (the Race franchise, for instance), strike you as virtual masterpieces. On the upside, the chemistry between John Abraham and Varun Dhawan does yield some mildly amusing moments. Since neither is summoned to display any acting chops, they sprint through the clichés with ceaseless stamina. So to see or not to see? Answer: why not if you’re an actionoholic? For the undecided, the recommendation is stay at home and zzzzzzzz.

Khalid Mohamed (Spotboye.com)

There is much more that could have been done here. It should be snappier and the jokes sharper, and the plot could so, so easily have been made water-tight. There are even times, unforgivably enough, when it begins to feel immaterial that the kidnapped quarry is a cricketer; it could be just anyone held up for ransom. But ah, the film is clearly aiming for laughs, and even when it gets lost along the way, blindsided by some unnecessarily elaborate action moment or by a bicepped un-actor, it still provides a fair bit of corny fun.

Raja Sen (Rediff.com)