Spoilers ahead…
Read the full review on Film Companion, here: https://www.filmcompanion.in/race-3-review-salman-khan-bobby-deol-baradwaj-rangan/
The choreographer-turned-director Remo D’Souza may be the most truthful filmmaker in Bollywood. He knows he’s not out to make classics, which may be why the titles of his films appear almost confessional. First came F.A.L.T.U. Translation: Don’t say you weren’t warned! It’s the cinematic equivalent of ordering something that’s labelled on the menu as Somewhat Iffy Salad, Prepared by a Rather Questionable Chef. Then we got the Any Body Can Dance films — as opposed to, Only People with Rhythm and Grace and Years of Proper Training Can Dance. Talent is overrated, the title said. Now, we have Race 3, with Salman Khan. The title suggests instant disconnect. Can you imagine that bulked-up, steroid-ified body doing anything as fleet as… racing? Lumbering Slo-mo Walk Towards the Camera 3 might have worked. But a better title comes to mind: Any Body Can Make a Movie.
Oh, but I’m probably protesting too much — for the general ineptness of an entry in the Race franchise is a given. The question, inevitably, isn’t how good the film is, but how bad! Is it trashy-fun bad, something you can laugh about and get through with snarky friends and a bucket of buttered popcorn? Or is it worse, the kind of badness where you are seized by fits of gratitude towards the inventor of the smartphone, who gave you the option of doing something more entertaining, like catching up on emails from HR? Or is it a few rungs lower, where you question your career choice as a film critic, and wonder if you should have chosen something less stressful, like running a preschool for two-year-olds with ADHD? Or is it a film that leaves you with molten rage towards your parents, who caused you to be born and witness a day when Salman Khan accuses Jacqueline Fernandez of overacting!
That’s an actual line in the movie. As is this: “Our business is our business, and none of your business.” Walking into Race 3, I was mildly perturbed when the attendant handed me a pair of 3D glasses. I did not know the Race franchise had any dimension, let alone a third. Besides, given the tendency of the actors in these films to rip off their shirts, the last thing I wanted was to be poked in the eye by a jutting nipple. But it turns out, far greater horrors lay in store, in the form of dialogues. A request to play a video on a laptop goes thus: “Usey dil nahin, DELL kholke dikhao.” Some bragging about a new girlfriend comes likes this: “It’s a done deal. Signed, sealed and delivered… With a kiss!” Here’s how a character explains how she overheard a conversation: “Bugs. Kaatne waale nahin. Sunne wale!” I wanted to take the writer aside and explain to him what lines were: “Geometry waale nahin. Script waale.”
Continued at the link above.
Copyright ©2018 Film Companion.
Baradwaj Rangan 
Sri Prabhuram
June 16, 2018
This is the first time I’m seeing you give a zero star rating to a film. 🤯
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Vikram S
June 16, 2018
BR,… that is Savage and fun…enjoyment… merriment (all in the spirit of the auteur Remo D’Souza)…also, in keeping with the trend here, may I accuse you of displaying ageist biases by saying nice things only about Anil Kapoor, and misogyny since you seem to have disliked the performances of Jacqueline and Daisy…and of not recognizing the caste chasm that seems to exist as a strong undercurrent all through the film….:-))
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MANK
June 16, 2018
Have you started reviewing Hindi films for film companion?
Couldn’t you have started with something better than sallu bhais rehabilitation project for friends and family masquerading as a movie. I won’t watch this junk even if someone paid me for it
Hilarious review BTW
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brangan
June 16, 2018
No, no. Just a one-off.
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sanjana
June 16, 2018
The film was taken over from direction to lyrics and casting to stunts by one and only bhai.
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sanjana
June 16, 2018
This film is strongly recommended by none other than Aamir Khan!
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Bharathi Shevgoor
June 16, 2018
Ah,through this review I had the pleasure of almost watching the movie with my snarky friend BR. No need of buttered popcorn. Hugely enjoyable review.
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phaneendra201
June 16, 2018
Hahahaha😁😁😁
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Ramit
June 16, 2018
steroid-ified. lol.
fleet. I didn’t know fleet was also an adjective.
Lumbering Slo-mo Walk Towards the Camera 3 might have worked. But a better title comes to mind: Any Body Can Make a Movie. Or perhaps, Any Body Can Race.
something more entertaining, like catching up on emails from HR. Hahaha.
Continued at the link above. Copyright ©2018 Film Companion. Congrats. It’s a new day. It’s new life for you. And I am feeling good.
what lines were: “Geometry waale nahin. Script waale.”. Maybe ‘lines’ needed to be italicized? (as I had to reread the sentence to get the joke.)
perfectly cast as siblings. This is not to suggest a physical resemblance. This made me look-up if Daisy Shah also has a big chest and six-pack abs. Turns out at least half of the statement is true.
The last three lines are so funny, witty and hilarious!
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Vidya Ramesh
June 16, 2018
You have got to stop taking people aside and explaining things to them BR, “geometry waale nahi script waale! ” I don’t know why I start imagining you doing that and it just cracks me up! This was literally apnea inducing laughter level funny 🙂 iam going to read this multiple times iam sure! It’s like one of those Jeeves pick me up s !
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Madan
June 16, 2018
Stomach hurts from laughing at the innumerable one liners. This one took the cake: “. Besides, given the tendency of the actors in these films to rip off their shirts, the last thing I wanted was to be poked in the eye by a jutting nipple. “
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Anu Warrier
June 16, 2018
🙂🙂🙂
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Rishikesh
June 16, 2018
Except for Anna Vetticad, I don’t see any critic speak in depth about its conceits and plot twists, which were better thought out than the previous versions. Shamsher Singh is a solid baddie, liked the both sides of him. There’s a cheeky reference to PK at the start, when he expresses his wish to go back home. The “Baste of Time” dialogue too is repeated here. And later there is a punch in the scene, where his other side is revealed, we also get a reason for the existence of that brief flashback portion in India – mind they were doing completely legal stuff there, until shamsher took complete charge of his own. It is a cheesy, unapologetic movie, that despite the occasionally bad dialogues, keeps you interested with its plot twists, and the best part is, it never aspires for more. I don’t feel that it was all put together mindlessly, if so, we wouldn’t have a reason for Jacqueline’s anger towards Salman in the security room. Initially we only know that their relationship has ended, but then we get to the ‘how’.
I liked Bobby too, a character who remains extremely cool inside but at the same time extremely evil. It is more the love towards his father than the animosity towards Sikander that prompts him to take him on. Another interesting touch, I felt.
I know what has gotten to you, the lack of an Indian setting. May be you would have enjoyed the same stuff more, if it was set in the hinterlands of India. But that is not all, it is not an easy to task to put together a screenplay, with constant twists that also makes space for generic elements like action, songs etc. It is not perfect but as opposed to previous parts or films like Dhoom 3/Dilwale, remakes like Kick and Jai Ho, there is a genuine effort to do justice to its genre. Not a bad way of spending couple of hours on big screen, If Salman assures that for all such no-brainers popcorn there will be Sultan and better written/made Bhajrangis to follow.
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abu6246
June 16, 2018
Sir did you notice…the action choreographer is the guy who choreographed for movies like Black Panther, Dunkirk…etc.
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harish ram
June 16, 2018
“It’s a pity the action choreographer didn’t realise her dialogue delivery is more lethal.”
Remo probably didn’t use this idea because Hari employed it already?
#runsaway
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Dracarys
June 16, 2018
Relax Brangan. Thoda Microsoft hona padtaa hai aise movies ke taraf…chalo Apple kao!🤣🤣🤣
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Doba
June 17, 2018
In the spirit of this glorious review – thank you, shujruya and nandri 🙂
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Rajesh Balasubramaniam
June 17, 2018
What a thoroughly entertaining review..Even Salman Khan will have more entertaiment from this movie than from shooting for the film. 25% of the reason I come to read your reviews is to read out these stress busters
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bart
June 17, 2018
Gave me some good laugh.
But you were trapped in your free-flowing sit-up comedy review, saar… Remo D’Souza & Bhai will hit back at you for this:
“As the theory goes, if you put 100 monkeys with typewriters in a room long enough, eventually you’ll get Hamlet. Race 3 is one of those other 99 drafts. ”
But the output of 100 monkeys needn’t be exactly the same, i.e.: 100 drafts, dear saar.. Gotcha..
Sorry sir, I was dreaming.. If only they were that logical, we wouldn’t have the movie in first place.. Peace.
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Akhilan
June 17, 2018
Race 3 in a way reminds of Jai Ho, where Salman in his gregarious ‘Being Human’ mode decided to rope in a few of his good buddies (or one could argue out of work/has been ‘actors’) and offered them a part in this mind-numbingly idiotic movie…
Even more idiotic was Salman himself penning lyrics to a couple of the songs… What was he thinking…?! I still can’t stop laughing at ‘Selfish’… At least the previous two movies in the franchise had Pritam’s score as a saving grace… Here even that is abysmal…
Apparently, it has gone on to become the biggest opener of 2018… (Sigh…)
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sanjana
June 17, 2018
Some of the comments matched your wit. Thanks Salman for matching Himesh R!
Your starpower is undisputable is proved again and again.
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kaizokukeshav
June 17, 2018
The trailer you posted is a fake one. Do recheck.
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Aman
June 17, 2018
Is there a large number of proxy directors in Bollywood compared to other industries? Yea, Kamal in tamil, Aamir in hindi and Prithviraj in malayalam is accused of ghost directing. I am not talking about them. I wonder how choreographers like Rameshan Nair, Prabhu Deva etc keep getting to direct films in Bollywood despite showing no inclination about it.
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You Know Who
June 17, 2018
Or is it a few rungs lower, where you question your career choice as a film critic, and wonder if you should have chosen something less stressful, like running a preschool for two-year-olds with ADHD? Or is it a film that leaves you with molten rage towards your parents, who caused you to be born and witness a day when Salman Khan accuses Jacqueline Fernandez of overacting!
Such a riot! 😂😂
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SharathC
June 17, 2018
I sincerely wish that these kind of ‘films’ release occasionally. They bring the best out of BR.
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Sutheesh Kumar
June 17, 2018
BR,
I’ve never read you writing about technology that goes in to screening like 2K,4K and IMAX. Also about sound format except for your two articles about Auro and Atmos hardly anything before or after. If you care about those we would really love to read your take on it.
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Jeyashree
June 19, 2018
“something less stressful, like running a preschool for two-year-olds with ADHD?”
A little sensitivity there please…i get that the very responsible writer you are, probably did not mean that as a specific psychiatric condition.. but pricked me in the eye not just because I am aunt to a child within the spectrum of ASDs but also that it did not belong in that otherwise hilarious review!
..
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brangan
June 19, 2018
Jeyashree: I really don’t know anymore what’s funny and what isn’t.
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Jeyashree
June 20, 2018
@brangan: trust me, I cannot agree more with you. I learn everyday that I need to be inclusive when I try my words at satire and turns out I have hurt sentiments of many vulnerable groups that I did not even know existed…
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Anu Warrier
June 20, 2018
Jeyashree, that was incredibly gracious. # Respect.
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KayKay
June 21, 2018
Jeyashree’s comment makes me miss scenes like these:
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Santa
June 23, 2018
The striking part about that scene was this: “What, they keep him in a cage?” “Well, its just an enclosure”
It’s truly frightening when current reality is worse than ‘politically incorrect’ satire.
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Sumesh
June 23, 2018
This film received unanimous bad reviews, even from trade pundits. It had huge opening numbers, but is on its way to become a flop. So does this mean reviewers have say in the BO performance of a film, at least in the long run?
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Rocky
August 23, 2018
Race 3 is now streaming on Amazon Prime , enjoyyyy !!
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Rocky
August 25, 2018
My second most bakwaas movie of Sallu Bhai after Yuvraj. ( that too incidentally was a family batwara drama).
Disclaimer -Did not finish Tube light,..
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Vijay
December 7, 2021
@Brangan: Its a hallmark of your writing that I keep revisiting this piece once in a while; especially when the chips are down at work. To remind myself that, there are worse things that one needs to do in course of their daily job… Cheers!
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Voldemort
August 26, 2022
Reading the Liger review reminded me of this. This was super amazing form, BR sir. This review is a gift that keeps on giving. Joke after joke after joke they all land terrifically. I’d prefer this any day over watching a standup special. xD
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