Drive Movie Review: Netflix gets a B-grade Race 3. If that were possible

After multiple release-day shifts, Karan Johar, producer of Drive, skipped the idea of showcasing his film on the big screen and opted to release it on Netflix instead. After watching the film, you will sympathise with Karan's decision, but will also question - was it really necessary to release the film at all?

The Sushant Singh Rajput and Jacqueline Fernandez starrer is an action film that involves many, many high-speed chases. But that's only if director Tarun Mansukhani thinks special effects count as 'action' sequences. Sushant and Jacqueline aren't moving a muscle in the film, apart from grooving to the film's songs.

They are just two very glamorous thieves, always dressed like runway models, who happen to hang out together at a garage-cum-party hub, loaded with fancy cars.

Jacqueline as Tara, known as King to the mafia world, is playing the role of a sexy thief, who is also a street-racing champion with a special love for plunging necklines and thigh-slit skirts.

Sushant as Samar uses Jacqueline's identity to pull off robberies. In between all this, they rob the Rashtrapati Bhavan too. So where is the twist? Head to Netflix for that (only if you have 2 hours to waste). Else read this review and ask Alexa to skip Drive.

Don't bother about logic in Drive. The entire team did not bother about it either. The actors in the film can race from India Gate to Chhatarpur and reach the Indira Gandhi International airport from Rashtrapati Bhavan in the blink of an eye. In real-life Delhi, that drive will take 12 hours off your life. Difficult to swallow? You bet.

In films like Drive, if not the script, makers make up to the audience by showing some high-octane, over-the-top stunts. Drive has nothing of that sort either. Director Mansukhani tries his hand at mixing Dhoom 2, the Race franchise and Ocean's Eleven (if I may dare) in Drive, but what the final product comes out as is just a distasteful desi version of Cars.

Coming to the performances, the trailer of Drive gives least importance to Pankaj Tripathi, but he is the only actor who brightens up the screen, even in this blindingly bright display of sequinned dresses and six-pack abs and snazziest of your cars. Boman Irani shares the burden with Pankaj, Atlas-like, in holding the film for the eternity that it stretches on for. Irani's performance, however, soon dwindles to caricature.

A wafer-thin script doesn't even give Sushant and Jacqueline a chance to perform in Drive. The dialogues are so jarring that the lead actors, despite their sincerest expressions, can't convince you.

Meaningless twists and turns in the script pushes you to a severe headache in Drive. Like the fake action sequences that have been crafted using special effects, Drive comes out as a half-hearted artificial product. This is quite possibly the worst heist drama Bollywood has ever seen. And we've seen Race 3.

1 stars out 5 for Drive.

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