This Article is From Sep 18, 2015

Phantom: Trailing Terrorists for Revenge

Phantom: Trailing Terrorists for Revenge

A still from Phantom.

New York: Daniyal (Saif Ali Khan) and Nawaz (Katrina Kaif), the hapless secret agent heroes of Kabir Khan's revenge thriller Phantom, could have used some pointers before being sent into the field.

For starters, Nawaz: If you see a suspect two rows behind you at a cricket match, you can tell Daniyal, but first remind him not to whip his head around to take a look. And if you're collecting cigarette butts for evidence at the stadium, try to be a bit sly. Wiggling around on the ground between seats until a young fellow with a broom demands that you get up and out of the way may call undue attention to yourself.

And, oh yes, Daniyal: If you go to elaborate lengths to have yourself sent to prison in Chicago to eliminate a fellow inmate, have your handlers check to see if he's about to be moved to another facility before you go to the trouble of excreting a battery (Did you swallow it? Well, points for that!) and executing the rest of your overly complicated kill setup. (Movie Review: Phantom)

Phantom starts with news footage of the November 2008 terrorist attacks in Mumbai, India. A voice-over tells us that the men responsible for their planning remain at large, sleeping peacefully beyond the grasp of India. Daniyal, the phantom of the title, is a disgraced Indian army officer recruited to kill these men one by one in an extrajudicial way. After all, says a RAW agent (it stands for Research and Analysis Wing, India's CIA), if America can do it...

The director, Kabir Khan, who wrote the script with Parveez Shaikh, likes city-wrecking action sequences. After the opening documentary footage, we get a bang-up car chase, which moves us deep into movieland. Daniyal's killings, full of pointless details and ginned-up obstacles, also reside squarely in this realm. (Nawaz is usually nearby swatting at problems.)

Khan, whose movies include Ek Tha Tiger and New York, is consistently drawn to the same themes: terrorism, Pakistani and Indian relations, and what it means to be a Muslim in Indian culture. In Phantom, he amps up the rah-rah Indian nationalism, though it is specifically not Hindu nationalism. Nawaz is apparently a Parsi, and Daniyal, at least in name, is a Muslim. First and foremost, though, they are Indian patriots.

Production Notes:

Phantom

Directed by Kabir Khan
Written by Khan and Parveez Shaikh
Director of photography, Aseem Mishra; edited by Aarif Sheikh
Music by Pritam
Production design by Rajat Kapoor, Sukant Panigrahi, Zeina Nawar and Paul McCulloch
Costumes by Subarna Ray Chaudhuri
Produced by Sajid Nadiadwala and Siddharth Roy Kapur
Released by UTV Motion Pictures
In Hindi, with English subtitles
Running time: 2 hours, 28 minutes
With: Saif Ali Khan (Daniyal) and Katrina Kaif (Nawaz)
This film is not rated
© 2015, The New York Times News Service
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