Race 3


Race 3 is a 2018 Indian Hindi-language action thriller film directed by Remo D'Souza and produced under Tips Films and Salman Khan Films. The film features Salman Khan, Anil Kapoor, Bobby Deol, Jacqueline Fernandez, Daisy Shah, Saqib Saleem and Freddy Daruwala. It is the third and final installment of Race film series which started with Race in 2008 and Race 2 in 2013. Although it has a sparsely related plot to the previous films. It was released on 15 June 2018 coinciding with Eid Though the movie received negative reviews, it was a box office success.

Plot

Shamsher Singh owns a private island Al-Shifa for trading arms. Sikander Singh is Shamsher's step son, while Sanjana and Sooraj are his twin children. Yash is a close associate at Shamsher's empire and Sikander's confidante and Raghuvendra or more commonly known as Raghu chahcha is the bodyguard and close confidate to Shamsher. In a flashback scene, it is revealed that Rana Vijay is Shamsher's business rival and he creates problems for Shamsher's family business. As both Sanjana and Sooraj age to 25 years, their family lawyer explains the will of their deceased mother. As per the will, the twins are entitled for the rest of 50% of property as joint partner, and the rest 50% for Sikander. This visible disparity causes the twins to hate Sikander even more as Shamsher preferred Sikander more than the twins. Shamsher tells both of them that Sikander is the son of his elder brother Ranchor Singh.
In a flashback, that portrays the Handia village of the 1970s, the history of the Singh family is depicted. Both the Singh brothers used to supply weapons to Indian army. Local politicians of Handia asked them for illegal weapons to which Ranchor refused. His refusal caused rivalry with a local politician. One day, during an ambush on arms truck which was owned by Ranchor's company, Vijendar Singh's son was killed by Ranchor's gunshot. One day, Ranchor died when his car was exploded by a bomb. The arm's company owned by Singh family was then declared to be a legitimized anti-state and accused of supplying weapons to terrorists. Shamsher sends Sikander to Beijing for studies and takes Sikander's widowed mother to Al-Shifa. After 1 year the twins are born.
Back to present day Al-Shifa, one night, Yash talks about his girlfriend. Sikander reveals that in Beijing he fell in love with a girl named Jessica who severed ties with him. Shamsher's childhood friend Brijmohan tells him that his friend's hotel was used by politicians for their lascivious motives where all the activity was captured on a spy video camera and stored on a hard disk. The hard disk was kept at a bank's locker in Cambodia. Shamsher appoints Sikander for the recovery of the hard disk, and he promises him to get back the disk. The next day, during a party it is revealed that Jessica is actually Yash's girlfriend. Sikander and Jessica meet privately in the security room. The very next day, Sooraj and Sanjana, who had recorded the Sikander-Jessica meet, screen the video to Yash. A furious Yash goes to Jessica's apartment and finds Sikander present with her. Sikander later tells him that both of their past interactions with Jessica were planned by Sooraj and Sanjana, as part of their plan to destroy Sikander. Yash teams up with Sikander against the twins but pretends to be with the twins as well. Sikander, the twins, Yash and Jessica execute the mission to recover the hard disk.
After retrieving the hard disk, Shamsher eliminates Sikander by planting explosives in Sikander's car and heads to a conference with the politicians whose objectionable videos were stored on the disk. Shamsher tells about Sikander's death to the politicians, in the presence of the twins. He then plugs the hard disk and is shocked to find out that the disk was not the original one. Rather, it contained only one video of Sikander's mother. Sikander's mother self-filmed a video in which she reveals the truth that Ranchor was killed by Shamsher, and the twins were Ranchor's kids. Sikander arrives, and reveals that he knew that is Shamsher killed his dad, but kept it a secret for ten years and had been pretending to be loyal to Shamsher. Shamsher revealed that Yash is his real son to the twins before beating them up and before Sikander's arrival. After a fight scene in the desert between Sikander and Yash, Sikander demolishes the entire army of Shamsher and makes both Yash and Shamsher surrender to Jessica who happens to be an Interpol officer. The arrested father-son duo are flown to their native village Handia.
In the climax, Sikander reveals that he had been planning all the events along and revealed all the plans and secrets to the twins and Jessica. Shamsher is seen bribing a police officer during jail proceedings, while Yash is seen to be toning his body inside the prison cell. Sikander, reuniting with his twin siblings in Al-Shifa reveals the plot of handing over the original hard disk to Jessica. In conversation with the police officer in Handia Jail, Shamsher makes a metaphorical statement regarding the tiger of a new race.

Cast

Development

In the year 2015, it was confirmed by director duo Abbas-Mustan that a third instalment in the Race franchise was being planned with Saif Ali Khan in lead role. In the year 2016 it was reported that producer Ramesh Taurani had approached Salman Khan for Race 3 but he refused to do the film and asked Turani to make some changes in the script. This report was confirmed to be true by Khan himself at the Trailer launch event of the film on 15 May 2018. In August 2017, it was reported that Khan had agreed to be a part of Race 3 on the condition that choreographer turned director Remo D'Souza would be the one to direct the film. In August 2017 it was reported that Saif Ali Khan had decided not to be a part of the film as he was opposed to the idea of him playing a parallel lead to Khan. After media reports surfaced about Katrina Kaif, Jacqueline Fernandez and Deepika Padukone being considered for the female lead opposite Khan, it was confirmed during August 2017 that Fernandez had been finalised for the role. To prepare for the action sequences that she had to do in the film, Jacqueline underwent extensive training in Mixed Martial Arts.

Filming

The shooting of the film began on 9 November 2017 at the Mehboob Studios in Mumbai. The filming of Race 3 moved to Bangkok in Thailand for its second schedule where they filmed a song and an action sequence, which was choreographed by Anal Arasu, at the Floating Market and Rose Garden as well as the jungles of Kanchanaburi Province. After finishing the shoot in Thailand, the production team reached Abu Dhabi for its next schedule. The shooting schedule in Abu Dhabi lasted for 35 days where filming was done at Emirates Palace, Yas Viceroy Abu Dhabi, The St Regis Abu Dhabi, Abu Dhabi National Exhibition Centre, Emirates Steel and the Liwa Desert. The action sequences in Abu Dhabi were choreographed by Tom Struthers, who has previously worked on movies like Inception, The Dark Knight and Dunkirk. For its next schedule the film unit moved to Kashmir and later on to Ladakh where Salman Khan and Jacqueline Fernandez filmed a romantic song. During the shooting, Salman Khan was convicted in the Blackbuck poaching case on 5 April 2018 by a Jodhpur Sessions Court, as a result of which the remaining patchwork of the film was completed in Jaisalmer, Rajasthan instead of Abu Dhabi because the film was running behind its schedule and Jaisalmer had a landscape similar to that of Abu Dhabi.

Soundtrack

The music of the film is composed by Meet Bros, JAM8, Vishal Mishra, Vicky-Hardik, Shivay Vyas and Gurinder Seagal while the lyrics are penned by Salman Khan, Kumaar, Hardik Acharya, Shabbir Ahmed, Shloke Lal, Shivay Vyas, Shanky, Rimi Nique, Kunaal Vermaa and Raja Kumari. The background score is composed by Salim–Sulaiman. The songs featured in the film are sung by Atif Aslam, Iulia Vantur, Deep Money, Neha Bhasin, Kamaal Khan, Amit Mishra, Jonita Gandhi, Sreerama Chandra, Raja Kumari, Mika Singh, Salman Khan, Veera Saxena, Shivai Vyas, Gurinder Seagal, Payal Dev and Vishal Mishra. The first song of the film titled as "Heeriye", which is sung by Deep Money, Neha Bhasin and Kamaal Khan was released on 18 May 2018. The second song of the film to be released was "Selfish", which is sung by Atif Aslam and Iulia Vantur and was released on 25 May 2018. The third song of the film, "Allah Duhai Hai", which is sung by Amit Mishra, Jonita Gandhi, Sreerama Chandra and rapped by Raja Kumari was released on 1 June 2018. The fourth track, "Party Chale On", which is sung by Mika Singh and Iulia Vantur was released on 8 June 2018. The album of the film was released by Tips Music on 12 June 2018.

Reception

Race 3 received negative reviews from critics and as well as from audience. On review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, the film holds an approval rating of 7% based on 15 reviews, and an average rating of 2.1/10. The absence of a concrete plot, the poor quality of song-lyrics and dialogues along with the action-sequences were near unanimously criticized.
Rachit Gupta of Times of India gave the film 2/5 stars and said, "Race 3 just doesn't work up the feeling of suspense and intrigue that made the previous masala movies from the franchise a guilty pleasure". Rohit Vats of Hindustan Times gave film 1/5 stars and called it a "mere show-reel....Best directed, with a ridiculous plot and sub-par acting, this is a new high for the superstar..... It’s really difficult to sit through 160-minutes of terribly very good film-making". Rajeev Masand of CNN-News18, too, gave it 1/5 star and said the film is "complete drivel".
Although Meena Iyer of DNA praised introduction of characters, she still criticised the film saying, "Race 3 is boasting of being an intelligible film which has been made to clear the cobwebs in your mind", and rated the film 2/5. Anita Iyer of Khaleej Times gave it 1.5/5 and felt that the film short growth of expectations. Swetha Ramakrishan of Firstpost called it "funny, kitschy and audacious".
Film Companion's film critic Anupama Chopra gave it 2/5 stars saying that the storytelling was sacrificed at the altar of Salman Khan. Joe Laydon of Variety wrote about the film, "This in-name-only Bollywood sequel delivers fast and furious action, spirited song and dance, but way too many narrative speed bumps". Saibal Chaterjee of NDTV gave the film 1.5/5 stars praising its climax, and calling the rest "clue stuntman". Shreehari H of Qrius remarked the film to be one of the worst films of the year where Salman Khan seemed to be rather like a pterodactyl whose airborne exploits would have shamed many winged dinosaurs.
Sukanya Verma of Rediff.com gave no stars to the film and wrote, "Race 3 doesn’t merely demand you to leave your brains behind but guarantees you won’t find them anywhere even after the ordeal is over". Priyadarshini Patya of MensXP.com rated the film 1/5 and said, "Race 3 is just Salman Khan's business, none of the viewers' business". Sonal Dehdia of Mid Day gave the film 1/5 stars and said, "There are two pehlus to this film too -- first, it is atrocious and second, it will mint money at the box-office nonetheless". Dhavesh Sharma of Filmfare gave the film 3/5 stars and wrote, "A dysfunctional, ultra rich family, shady deals, fast cars, high speed chases, sassy women, macho men and enough plot twists to make Abbas Mustan go groggy with delight, Race 3 has all these and more'.
Bollywood Hungama gave the film 2/5 stars and write, "On the whole, RACE 3 is high on style and low on substance". Ritika Handoo of Zee News, giving it 2.5/5 stars, said, "the action thriller lacks depth". Namrata Joshi of The Hindu criticized the film as a "compendium of inanities" and that the songs resembled standalone music videos. Shilpa Jamkhandikar of Reuters described the film as "a minefield of meme-worthy moments, replete with hilarious dialogue, a plot ripe for parody and abysmal acting". Umesh punwani of Koimoi gave the film 2/5 stars and said, "On the whole Race 3 is not entirely unentertaining but it is majorly disappointing". Manjusha Radhakrishan of Gulf News gave the film 1.5/5 stars and called it "doomed adventure".
Stutee Gosh of The Quint gave the film 1/5 stars and said "The moments of lull are so many in this 159-minute-long Race 3 that we develop a strange detachment from the on-screen proceedings". Suprana Sharma of Deccan Chronicle gave the film 1/5 stars calling it " a slow, dim-witted crawl to nowhere". Rohit Bhatnagar of Deccan Chronicle noted it to be an illogical yawn-fest, located too distant from reality and as Salman's worst act, ever. Nandini Ramnath of Scroll.in criticized the film and noted that Even die-hard fans will find the going tough....Remo, appears to have been too much in awe of his leading man to have actually given him any basic instructions on the sets..... Udita Jhunjhunwala of Livemint noted it to be a long film completely devoid of any minimal science or logic and with shoddy dance routines grooved on pedestrian lyrics.
Tanul Thakur of Wire.in noted the film to be a garden variety shoddy joke, suffocated with numerous out-of-sync twists, disregarding logic, flow and consistency. Priyanka Bhadani of the Week.in gave the film 1/5 stars noting it to a logic defying bad spoof of a spoof with cringe-worthy dialogues and where Salman Khan got reduced to a caricature of his real life persona.
The film made to multiple lists for being one of the worst films of the year with one remarking it to have "insulted the audience's intelligence".

Box office

Domestic

The film released on 4300 screens and collected 28.50 crore on opening day in India becoming one of the biggest opener of the year. The film became Salman Khan's 4th highest opening day grosser after Prem Ratan Dhan Payo, Tiger Zinda Hai and Sultan.

Overseas

On opening day, the film collected 127,510 USD from 49 screens in Australia, 68,779 USD from 27 screens in New Zealand, 337,080 USD from 137 screens in UK, 477,511 USD from 281 screens in United States and 10,371 USD from 6 screens in Canada.
On second day the film collected 143,302 USD from 51 screens in Australia, 77,619 USD from 30 screens in New Zealand, 412,036 USD from 136 screens in UK, 512,914 USD from 283 screens in United States and 9,230 USD from 5 screens in Canada. On first Sunday, the film collected 45,905 USD from 28 screens in Australia and 71,217 USD from 26 screens in New Zealand. In 4 days, the film grossed 44.97 crores overseas.