Oh, what a disaster! Drive, produced by Karan Johar, was launched a couple of years back with much fanfare with the claims that this high octane saga could build up to a franchise. It was helmed by Tarun Mansukhani, the guy who was trying for a decade to get his second film made after the successful Dostana (2008). The movie also had two good-looking leads in Sushant Singh Rajput and Jacqueline Fernandez. With the backing of a huge banner like Dharma Productions, Drive was touted to be a rage in theatres. Alas, Fate has other plans! After Sushant Singh Rajput's Drive, Even Sunny Kaushal's Bhangra Paa Le Skips Theatrical Release to Land on Netflix?
After its release keep getting postpones, with rumours of turmoil between Tarun and Karan, Drive was finally released on Netflix. 'Dumped' would be the right word, seeing how shoddy the final film turned out to be. Filled with poor VFX, plot contrivances and technical glitches, it is a wonder that Netflix even bought this film, until it wanted to look at a bigger association with Dharma.
To be honest, the premise was interesting and there are some good surprise reveals. Considering the writer had very low expectations about the film from the start, he managed to forgive some of the major flaws in his because he was hooked to the heist portions of the film. But on second thoughts, the writer agrees that the film is a huge mess, and it should have stayed in the cans, or deserved better post-production working.
In this feature, we look at 10 things that continue to bother us about the latest travesty that came out of Karan Johar's banner, after Kalank and Student of the Year 2 earlier this year.
The VFX and Production Values
The aspect that puts you off the most about Drive is the shitty VFX. The cars look something that came out a bootlegged GTA game, looking totally artificial. It would have been forgivable if your movie was anything but named Drive, and aimed to be a poor cousin of Fast & Furious franchise, and had some major sequences that needed good VFX.
Even the production values looked totally bad, and nothing that you expect from a film that has Karan Johar's name associated.
Modified Tata Nano
In a car race sequence, Sushant Singh Rajput is seen driving a Tato Nano against Vikramjeet Virk's fast car. Sure, it is a modified one, but the idea of getting a Nano in a race is ludicrous to even think about!
Audio Glitches
Was no attention given to the film during its post-production process? Drive is littered with technical glitched, continuity issues and more annoying, audio flaws. There are many occasions where the actors' lip-syncing do not match with the dialogues spoken. In one particular scene, Sushant's voice didn't seem to belong to the actor, but looked to be dubbed by someone else.
The Arjun Conundrum
Arjun (Anuj Jain) was the undercover cop sent by Irfan to infiltrate the underground racing gang. In quite a few scenes, he is seen trying to help Irfan and the bureaucrats at the Rashtrapati Bhavan to catch hold of the robbers, and even driving a fast car to chase and get hold of them. So far, so good.
And then we find out that Irfan is actually a conman, who had nothing to do with the PMO. So how did he manage to send a cop to go undercover with the gang?
The Lackadaisical Security At Rashtrapati Bhavan
It is incredulous to see how Irfan (Boman Irani) and Samar (Sushant Singh Rajput) manage to infiltrate into Rashtrapati Bhavan with just a phone call. The rest of the ludicrousness, like Tara (Jacqueline Fernandez) seducing a babu in '80s style, or getting the building infested with CGI rats, continue the same level of stupidity. Considering Rashtrapati Bhavan is one of the most secure buildings in the country, showing such vague infiltration methods feel an insult to the security team there.
The Wedding Song
All the three picturised songs in the film are randomly inserted in the film, and save for "Makhna", the other two songs are bad. But the most WTF song placement, "Prem Pujari" that is picturised around the wedding of Bikki (Virk) and Naina (Sapna Pabbi).
Watch Prem Pujari Song from Drive:
Considering that the former proposed the latter when they only had 4-5 days away from the heist, and the marriage happened the next day, we wonder how the wedding had been conducted in such a grand manner. But then this is a Bollywood film, and a Karan Johar production, so that should be okay, right?
Missing Sapna Pabbi
Speaking of Naina, where did she disappear in the epilogue when Tara and Bikki reach the Bank of London, and Irfan and Samar had somehow stationed themselves there already?
Did she realise that the film was a travesty and scooted with grace?
How Did This Happen?
Let me ask once again - were the people involved in the post-production of Drive snoozing? How can such a big blunder, pointed out by the below annoyed journo, get into your film?
#Drive had its moments but possibly the dumbest heist film I have seen Leave aside the shoddy execution & some bad acting...they couldn't even get the basic stuff right..from audio sync, vfx to the closing credits
At one point in the climax chase, someone else dubbed for @itsSSR pic.twitter.com/MG6S2wSOc9
— Gaurang Chauhan (@GaurangChauhan) November 3, 2019
Even Netflix has to share the blame here, as such mistakes can't be overlooked. It is a great disservice to the musicians involved in the song.
The Final Chase Sequence
The final car chase sequence sums up everything that's wrong with the movie. From the bad VFX in rendering the cars to choppy editing, to the idea of having a high octane car chase on the Delhi roads that are muddled in construction - everything in this scene is ridiculous.
The height of absurdity is when the protagonist's cars even manage to get into an airfield, leading to another silly display of VFX when a flight nearly flattens Naina's car.
(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Nov 04, 2019 10:10 PM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).