Movie Review: Mission Istanbul

Mission Istanbul

"Mission Istanbul" produced by Suniel Shetty, Shabbir Boxwala, Shobha Kapoor and Ekta Kapoor and directed by Apoorva Lakhia has a jam packed star cast which includes Zayed Khan (Vikas Sagar), Vivek Oberoi (Rizwan Khan), Shabbir Ahluwalia (Khalil nazir), Shreya Saran (Anjali), and Sunil Shetty (Owais Hussain) etc.

Vikas Sagar (Zayed Khan) is a journalist for Aaj Tak. He is responsible for getting news reports of international terrorist attacks and is an individual who can even put his life in danger to get an exclusive true story. Ambitious, hardworking and fearless make Vikas reach the highest peaks of success and he becomes the most famous and promising journalist in the media.

With his popularity at its peak, one day Vikas is approached by Owais Husain (Sunil Shetty) a senior producer at the controversial Istanbul-based channel - "Al Johara" (Al Jazeera anyone?). The channel that is condemned for being the mouthpiece of terrorists is also amongst the most viewed ones in the world, watched even at the White House. Vikas decides to go for three-month orientation in Istanbul, which hampers his marriage with Shriya Saran who also happens to be a journalist at Aaj Tak.

And so Mission Istanbul begins as Vikas soon finds out that things are much different than Vikas had ever imagined them to be. Vikas joins the channel and is given one line of caution- do not enter the 13^th floor. Mystery at its best which may unfold later but for now Vikas along with Owais Hussain goes to Afghanistan to cover an exclusive interview with Khalil, an Abu Nazir operative, who has kidnapped Western tourists in one of Abu Nazir's terrorist camps.

After seeing the brutality in Afghanistan, Vikas comes back to Istanbul, where he meets Rizwan Khan (Vivek Oberoi) in the funeral of Owais Hussain. After meeting Rizwan he realizes that Al Johara is not what it looks like. He soon starts finding more information about the channel and by mistakes goes to the 13^th floor for which he is torched. Soon Vikas realizes his life is in danger and he cannot trust anyone. But as he has no option he partners with Rizwan to save his life and expose the true side of Al Johara channel.

The movie has 3 songs- including a misplaced, pathetic item number by Abhishek Bachchan and other songs are just copied from the Western-remixes.

In a nutshell, Mission Istanbul's trailers gave the impression that it might be an intelligent take on terrorism. But get ready to be disappointed as it is just another movie with a lot of bollywood style fighting and item numbers. Not much substance and a forgettable fare at the box office!

Bolly Curry Rating: One Chilly Out Of Five! Below average story with an attempt at a subject that could have been handled in a much better manner!

Movie Review Courtesy: Bolly Curry