Vikram Bhatt provides us with his grotesque tribute to Sholay, all revamped and digitalised, shot in foreign locations, and without an iota of intelligence. Big is bad in this case and Bhatt usually offers the worst possible fare when he is working with outside producers and big stars. Could you possibly have forgotten the dreadful aap mujhe achche lagne lage? Looking at his body of work, can you actually see an iota of originality in any of his subjects? Despite this, he has given us tremendous adaptations in Ghulam and Raaz but can you really just rest of past laurels?

Baba Sikander (Mithun Chakraborty), a gangster modldled on Chota Chetan etc (in the most cardboard fashion) lives in Europe and conducts his extortion business by mobile telephone, a gang of hoodlums always in the background as Baba Skander makes threatening phone calls to Kantilal Shah, a rich businessman based in India. His adopted son Karan (Rahul Khanna) advises him not to yield to his demands although his daughter (Ritu Shivpuri) wants him to do so. The inevitable happens and Kantilal is murdered by Baba Sikander and Karan is denounced by his sister.

Karan now decides to bring the culprity back to India and decides that he has to get a team together to bring the gangster back to Indian shores, a job that no one else has been able to do as yet. Karan then approaches Arjun (Arjun Rampal), an ex policeman who had been suspended from the police force as a result of murdereing the hoodlums who had murdered his wife. With a young daughter, he is initially reluctant but immediately feels that he must help Karan for no ostensible reason. They also rope in tapori rogue Abhimanyu (John Abraham), someone who has been double crossed by Baba.

In the meantime, we have a romantic track in the offing with Priya (Amisha Patel), a journalist who smells a “story” and pursues Karan with cameras, bugging devices and what have you, blackmailing her way into the gang of three which now becomes a gang of four. This gang is increased to 5 with the inclusion of Sonia (Lara Dutta), a dancer at a joint in Venice who happens to be Abhimanyu's girlfriend.

The fantastic 5 then set about trying to track down and loathesome Baba who eludes them at every point. What follows are the usually chase scenes, shoot-outs, bursting cars and various action shots, meant to take your breathe away, against the magnificent backdrop of Venice . For those who are not asleep by this stage, the action sequences merely prolong the agony, which sets in fairly early in the film. Predictably, justice prevails in a most limp and unexciting climaxes of recent times.

What could have possessed Mithun to have accepted this appalling role, one will never know and he hams it to the hilt. Poor Rahul Khanna simply looks bewildered at the lines he's given and appears to be mouthing them as if he has a gun put to his head. He has a certain charm but is simply not convincing as an avenger. Its actually quite funny seeing him mouth all these clichéd dialogues because you can tell he doesn't believe a word of what he is having to say! He is modelled on the Sanjeev Kumar role in Sholay whereas Arjun substitutes for Amitabh and John for Dharmendra!!!!! You have to see the film to see how preposterous the whole idea is. Arjun Rampal comes off slightly better but still fails to convince as a consummate performer. The scene is therefore left for John Abraham to steal and he is the best one in the film by far.

Two Amisha Patel starrers in as much as two weeks is enough to turn you off cinema for good. Not having time to digest her awfulness in her previous film (Vaada), one is subjected to miss pretty perfect, lipstick with outliner always in place, not a lash out of place in the skimpiest of skirts and tops, playing a journalist. Being Bhatt's girlfriend probably meant that she should assist in showing a little leg to draw in the crowds but its actually a complete turn off. The girl's a monster and a dreadful actress. The less said about her, the better. Lara Dutta is better but that's not saying much.

Anu Malik's music is dreadful as is the film.