A scene from movie, "Dhoom 3". - Courtesy Photo

Bike chases, high-flying circus acts, scowls and incredible nonsense.

Formulated more on loop-holes than coherency, the screenplay by director Vijay Krishna Acharya (based on the story by producer Aditya Chopra and Mr. Acharya, also the writer of the first two Dhooms) fixates on a frayed plot about family revenge and window dresses it with mix of uber-bike chases, feeble music (by Pritam) and basic acting skills one acquires from a week-long crash course at New York Film Academy.

A scene from movie, "Dhoom 3". - Courtesy Photo

Opening on the debt ridden illusionist (Jackie Shroff, first-rate), and his prodigy son Sahir, “Dhoom 3” quickly discards any substantiality of the plot in favor of superficially sexy-looking escape sequences of the movie’s lead crook – a grown up version of Sahir played by Aamir Khan with a constant furrow and a skewered expression.

Sahir is his father’s son, and discrediting the movie’s opening about their family circus being debt ridden by a nefarious bank, he is running a modern day grandstand version of the circus to packed houses. He is also, quite openly, raiding the bank that forced his father to put a bullet to his head.

A scene from movie, "Dhoom 3". - Courtesy Photo

Regardless of being set in Chicago, where ANY bank’s security would be a tad better than India’s (I think), Sahir loots the place, threatens them in Hindi, places a joker’s mask as his mark, and scales the building down without concealing his identity. If the heist feels anticlimactic, it’s because we didn’t see how Sahir thwarted the bank’s security measures. In fact, we never see him committing any robbery in “Dhoom 3”. He just, quite simply, escapes.

Anyways, the bank and police – who are adept at ramming their own service vehicles every time Sahir is on the run – are baffled. Who is this unmasked burglar? Maybe someone forgot to think about surveillance tapes, or questioning people on the streets he drops in on. (A social security check on would-be suspects would have worked wonders, if anyone would’ve bothered to have asked me).

Instead, feeling trumped, they bring Indian super-cop Jai Dixit (Abhishek Bachchan) and his love-ready, bike Savvy partner Ali (Uday Chopra) over for some bland play-acting. (And before I forget, the cast includes the cameo-esque screen-time of lead actress Katrina Kaif, who plays Aaliya, the high-wire acrobat who falls for Sahir).

A scene from movie, "Dhoom 3". - Courtesy Photo

In a series of juvenile scenes, Jai finds Sahir out, but doesn’t arrest him; (because, if Jai nabs Sahir now, the next cut would be the end credits). His reasoning, nonetheless, is a serious face-palm moment, amongst many other face-palm moments.

Mr. Acharya is dead-set on working-up the material with seen-it-all-before plot points. But just when you count “Dhoom 3” out, the screenplay plays its lonesome ace to a marginally effectual hand seconds before the intermission.

The “trick” works well for twenty or so minutes, ultimately succumbing to Mr. Khan’s toothless performance and the climax’s own ridiculousness.

Mr. Khan works hard for his pay cheque, however his earnestness (which shows up in his chiseled physique, acrobatics, a serious looking tap dance routine, and some very real sweat), fall prey to Dhoom franchises’ in-built partiality to be big, loud and preposterous.

So, what franchised blockbuster isn’t ridiculous? Well, “Dhoom 3”, is right up there with the best of ‘em. I count this too as prestige – only, of a different nature.

Released by Geo Films and Yash Raj Films. “Dhoom 3” is rated U.

There is literally nothing offensive about the movie – unless you count the cerebral damage to one’s logic.

Directed by Vijay Krishna Acharya; Produced by Aditya Chopra with Executive Producers, Aashish Singh, Sanjay Shivalkar; Screenplay by Mr. Acharya, Prakash Bharadwaj (based on the story by Mr. Acharya, Mr. Chopra). Cinematography by Sudeep Chatterjee; Edited by Ritesh Soni; Music by Pritam Chakraborty; Lyrics by Amitabh Bhattacharya, Kausar Munir, Sameer Anjaan.

The movie stars: Aamir Khan, Abhishek Bachchan, Katrina Kaif, Uday Chopra, Jackie Shroff, Tabrett Bethell, Andrew Bicknell, Siddarth Nigam.