350. Race 3; movie review

RACE 3
Cert 12A
159 mins

BBFC advice: Contains moderate violence and sex references

Immediately after watching Race 3, I posed the question on social media: "Has Salman Khan ever been able to act? It is tough enough seeing him grappling with actresses who are 20 years younger but his acting is so stiff and I wonder if it is an age thing. "
The most concise reply came from a chap who said "NO! He has that same blank expressions in all his characters."
I cannot deny that Khan is one of the most successful Bollywood leading men around today but I presumed he must have been more vibrant 20 or 30 years ago.
Apparently not. His fixed scowl has not changed and neither has the purposeful but unique gait.
The frown and the stiff swagger are very much present during Remo D'Souza's Race 3 in which he plays the stepson of a ruthless businessman (Anil Kapoor).
He does much of his bidding, including bailing out his two arrogant, gung-ho children (Daisy Shah and Saqib Saleem).

However, the broad-shouldered bruiser is unaware that the duo are conspiring against him after discovering that he was left a greater chunk of their mother's estate in her will.
The Race 3 is centred on the family turmoil which catches the stepson's loyal friend (Bobby Deol) in the verbal and even physical crossfire.
But the intrigue is hardly deep enough to be stretched over more than two and a half hours.
Indeed, in my opinion, an hour could have been chopped and that could have heightened rather than diluted its dramatic impact.
As it is, the story goes around in circles as the cliched characters become more and more crass.
As said, I don't get the fascination with Salman Khan. I can't pretend to be a Bollywood expert but I have seen a fair few of his movies and he always looks like a middle-aged bloke trying to appear as if he is 30.
He looks as unlikely a superhero as he does a dancer (he looks distinctly out of place strutting his stuff next to the lithe Shah, Saleem and Jacqueline Fernandez).
I have read that Salman Khan was not first choice for Race 3 but Saif Ali Khan turned it down. Worse still, Salman demanded changes to the script.
There can be little doubt that plan A would have been better.

Reasons to watch: If you are a Salman Khan devotee
Reasons to avoid: Far too long and cliched characters

Laughs: None
Jumps: None
Vomit: None
Nudity: None
Overall rating: 3.5/10

Director quote - Remo D'Souza: "As a filmmaker or even as a normal human being, I’m touchy about my work. Everybody is because it is my baby. They don’t know that I got the script, a month before we started shooting this film. I have a big cast and I have only one month to shoot the film. We were in the desert, burning ourselves, in the jungles of Bangkok."

The big question - How is Salman Khan one of the biggest stars in Bollywood?

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