Twelve years ago in the world of Bollywood, a big budget film was set to release -- not just big, but HUGE: the most expensive Bollywood movie ever made, to be exact. It had the hottest on-screen couple of that era (Anil Kapoor and Madhuri Dixit) in the lead roles, a great supporting cast, lavish sets, and state-of the-art visual special effects -- nothing India had ever seen before. That movie was Pankaj Parashar’s Rajkumar. Do you remember it? I didn’t think so; and to the select few that did, I bet you wish you had forgotten it, right?

Twelve years later, at the brink of total globalization in Bollywood films, we as an industry have grown. Our stories are no longer just love triangles, and our locations abroad are not just used for song sequences. Our directors have gotten more innovative, and the gap between Hollywood and Bollywood has gotten smaller. We are releasing bigger movies, with different genres being explored...

...But, sometimes bigger and different aren’t always a good thing. And unfortunately, that was the case with Goldie Behl’s latest film Drona.

The film starts with a little boy named Aditya who wakes from a nightmare and runs to the room of his foster parents to find solace. Instead he gets scorned by his foster mother and is told to return to his bedroom. Dejected by his overly and unnecessary cruel foster parent, Aditya goes back to his room, sits in front of his opened window, and weeps in silence.

Moments later, after a run -in with a mysterious blue rose petal that floats into Aditya’s room and dances around for a while before landing in the palm of the little boy's hand, Aditya’s foster father enters the room, embraces the child, and tells him that he is a very special boy and one day he will find out how different he truly is from the rest of the world.

Cut to several years later where little Aditya is now a tall, dark, and handsome (young?) man. Abhishek Bachchan plays the older version of Aditya, who, due to a random series of events, finds out that he is Drona, the protector of universe. Priyanka Chopra’s character Sonia is Drona’s bodyguard, who along with several other miscellaneous people have been keeping a watchful eye on Drona since he was very young. Sworn to a life of duty and protection, Sonia is willing to give up her life to keep Drona out of harm's way.

Drona’s arch nemesis, Riz Raizada (who also slayed Drona’s birth father; played by Kay Kay Menon) is a powerful magician who has spent his whole life in search of the almighty amrit, which would give him immortality. Unfortunately the amrit can only be found when the evil sorcerer finds and kills Drona. His efforts are fruitless until one day by a chance encounter, he meets Drona on the streets of London.

The story kicks off into full speed, and before you know it, the audience members are pulled into a journey they are not sufficiently prepared to take.

What worked: The action scenes and fight/stunt choreography were very much up to par, some of the best I’ve seen in Indian cinema to date. Full marks on the car chase sequence and train scene.

The comic book/anime insertion throughout the film was of high quality and visually pleasingly.

The background score blended well with its respective scenes and was one of the few technical aspects of the movie that wasn’t over the top and distracting.

Kudos are in order for Kay Kay’s overall performance, Priyanka’s physical on-screen presence and Abhishek’s train sequence and sword-wielding capabilities in the last fight scene with Riz.

What didn’t work: The biggest flaw of the Drona was the weak story/ screenplay. There was no depth to the film. Characters weren’t developed properly; therefore the audience didn’t have time to engage or emotional invest in any of them.

The costumes and sets were way over the top and seemed more childlike and fake, instead of giving off the illusion of fantasy and mystery (the whole Raazpur sequence was just too hard to swallow).

Dialogues were painfully slow and filled with clichés. Priyanka’s Forrest Gump-like repetition of “Mere Bauji kaha karte the . . .” was delivered to the point of aggravation to most people in the theater. Kay Kay’s villainy was borderline comedic and Abhishek’s dialogue was reduced down to a few lines every other frame or so.

The visual effects weren’t cutting-edge and, in fact, most of the scenes didn’t even require them. It is blatantly obvious that most of the interest toward this film was to boost special effects and introduce the fantasy genre into Indian cinema; unfortunately, so much emphasis was placed on that, that the story and flow of the film was severely compromised.

There were too many questions left unanswered, too many holes in the story, too many puzzles and riddles that we’ve seen before, and nothing to connect us to this magical world.

And although Dhruv Ghanekar’s music was good in theory, it stuck out like a sore thumb in the film's purpose, especially in the opening sequence Khushi and the item song Oop Cha, where the audience members see Priyanka’s character go from parallel word bodyguard dressed head to toe, to item dancer, wearing short shorts and dancing to heavy drum and bass.

Overall, although made with good intentions, Drona doesn’t deliver. And if there is a sequel to be made, one would suggest being more disciplined with the story content, eliminate all clichés, and show the movie goers something they have never seen before, as opposed to replicating scenes from a mixed bag of Hollywood blockbusters, and possibly making it without any songs.

Whether it’s Rajkumar in 1996, or Drona in 2008, Bollywood needs to learn from its past in order to have a successful future. We should know our limitations, and sometimes maybe accept that certain genres of film aren’t our forte (yet).

I do commend director Goldie Behl for his attempt and vision, along with the whole Drona team for marketing the film brilliantly – but as for my thoughts on the film overall: “gustakhi maaf.”

To see or not to see folks . . . I'll let you know at the next premiere.

Final Rating: * *