Charlie (Amitah Bachchan) gets a team of good players, Ronnie (Bobby Deol) who is a magician, Riya (Bipasha Basu) a thief, Bilal (Sikandar Kher) good in explosives, Sunny (Omi Vaidya) deals with make overs and Spider (Neil Nitin Mukesh) a hacker. The mission is to steal gold from a train going to Russia. 

It's a Abbas Mastaan film, hence you expect that there would be a certain someone who would betray Charlie in the plan. There are 2 sequences where intentionally a gora is made to obey indian traditions or sing indian songs, a way to bring humour into the film as per the director. Silly! 

In a thriller, its important that there are good twists and turns, and the end isn't easily guessable or the other way around, its not easy to guess how the exeuction would take place. The reason Players fails is, one, some of the twists don't surprise you as you guessed them correctly, and second, the performances lacks the firepower or screen presence to keep you interested in a 2 hr 40 mins long film. 

The twist after succeeding in getting gold, is the best of all. Other than that, the small car sequence is good one, and so is the climax gold one. Dialogues are average not well written. Editing is okay. Screenplay was predictable.

Music is good, and used pretty much as per requirement of the narration of the story. Jhoom jhoom female version filmed on Sonam and Neil was the best of all, and so was yeh ladki hai naadaan. Unfortunately, the screenplay had no place for dil yeh beqarar song, which was the best one in entire album.

Abhishek Bachchan may had enacted his role sincerely, yet the lack of his screen presence lets the film suffer especially when you have Omi Vaidya, Sikandar Kher and Bobby Deol as three supporting actors. 

Omi Vaidya does have few good moments in the film, which in itself is a victory for him who is just repeating himself ever since 3 Idiots. Sikandar Kher and Bobby Deol have small roles, with not much significance.

Neil Nitin Mukesh is the best of all the actors, though he is let down with weak punchlines. Sonam Kapoor looks wonderful, and to a certain extent is likeable in the film.. her acting is still bad but atleast you can manage to see her this time around. She was wonderful in that dance no with Neil Nitin Mukesh.

Bipasha Basu role had no freshness, seen her in similar roles too often.. infact she reminded a lot of Race, just that she was with other person this time around. She was definately apt for the film, but could had swapped roles with Sonam probably.

A interview said that Vinod Khanna is gonna be seen in a film after long because this script appealed to him, Really ? The 1st sequence with those funny looking inspectors was enough to tell what a stupid role he said Yes to!


Overall, Players turns out to be a below average film due to weak screenplay and actors who couldn't bring the kind of style this thriller required to have.


Verdict : Below Average