Escape from Dhaka

When Rishi Kapoor passed away a day after Irrfan Khan, hardly anyone raised D-Day — the 2013 turkey they both starred in.  Uncharacteristically, Kapoor played the villain.  Named Goldman, the character is not inspired by any Bond flick, but the real life character Dawood Ibrahim — one of the top fugitives in the world with a $25 million bounty, and the subject as well as financier of many a Bollywood movie.  In the movie, Khan is a deep cover RAW agent who is sent to Pakistan to spy on the mob boss.  No, not a fancy, posh, big name hair stylist, but your neighbourhood barber.

Sounds ridiculous?  Not as ridiculous as the army officer turned mercenary who is sent by RAW to nab Goldman.  Played by Arjun Rampal, the first thing this Indian hero does in the Land of the Pure is to visit a lady of the night!  Perhaps he fancied the lure of the exotic other, or maybe he always wanted to visit Heera Mandi and had to make do with some Karachi girl– but surely this was supremely irresponsible: I mean, one would think someone with the surname Singh might have a certain anatomical feature that would be quite distinctive compared with the typical patron of most houses of ill repute in the Islamic Republic!