REVIEW: Acid Factory

Acid Factory is about a bunch of bad guys locked up in one, (you guessed it!) acid factory. One of them however is an undercover cop. Sounds Kaante? Well, it is. The look, set up, soundtrack and characterisations, bear an overbearing influence of Sanjay Gupta's super stylised 2000 flick. The only difference being that, in Acid Factory the characters suffer from temporary amnesia. However few minutes into the film you realise that the memory loss bit is just a forced gimmick. And has little impact on the story.

Acid Factory has some breathtaking action. But it's the basic flaws in the script that rob it off the desired thrills.

First and foremost, the identity of the undercover cop is revealed in the opening scene. So there is no mystery element to the premise.

Secondly, instead of constructing it as a thrilling joy ride, Acid Factory is a bunch of haphazardly put together action sequences that lead to a clumsy climax. Even the back and forth edit pattern becomes predictable in a while.

The so-called suspense around their presence in the factory, can be guessed almost half-an-hour before the credits roll. From there on, the film just drags on as you wait haplessly for the characters to unravel the mystery.

Now a lot of people knew the suspense of Kaante before it released. But what worked for that one was Dutt and Bachchan's magnetic screen presence. Acid Factory's acting ensemble can be divided into two parts – bad actors and gifted actors. Unfortunately both sets get inane dialogues and scenes to perform. However Irrfan Khan and Manoj Bajpayee manage to add some meet to the film with their natural spontaneity. In fact Khan and Bajpayee's argument in the climax, is a high point of the film.

Dia Mirza's much-hyped negative role is a damp squib. Someone seems to have mercilessly edited her out of most scenes. But she's the visual relief in a film full of shouting men. A special mention for Gulshan Grover, who has to be cinema's dumbest cop in a long long time. He is never on time; gets outsmarted at every occasion and insists on blabbering one-liners, straight out of American cop dramas. Acid Factory tries too hard to be like a Sanjay Gupta film. But director Suparn Varma can't recreate the stylish, edginess of his producer.

Verdict: For its action and some of Irrfan's well-improvised scenes, Acid Factory makes it to the watchable category. It's a wannabe action packed Hollywood B-movie. It gets the stupidity right, but falls short in attitude.

Rating: 2/5