Phantom
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Casts: Saif Ali Khan, Katrina Kaif, Mohammed Zeeshan Ayyub, Sabyasachi Chakrabarty, Sohaila Kapur
Banner: UTV Motion Pictures and Nadiadwala Grandson Entertainment
Director: Kabir Khan
Producer: Sajid Nadiadwala and Siddharth Roy Kapur
Screenplay: Kabir Khan and Parveez Shaikh
Music: Pritam Chakraborty
Release Date: 28th August 2015
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Story line: Phantom movie is about the post-26/11 attacks in Mumbai and global terrorism. Saif Ali Khan and Katrina Kaif were cast in leading roles, as secret agents/mercenaries. The film earlier had a working title as Daniyal Khan, before being titled Phantom. Phantom is a political thriller that unfolds across various countries around the world. The plot revolves around protagonist Daniyal, whose journey to seek justice takes him from India to Europe, America and the volatile Middle East. However, he finds out that in a mission like this, there is always a price to pay, in this case, a very personal price. Saif Ali Khan plays Daniyal an Indian agent who vows to get inside Hariz Saeed’s home, kill him on the spot, and take his revenge for attacking Mumbai. Hariz Saeed is a veiled reference to Hafiz Saeed, the Jamaat-ud-Dawa chief who is wanted in India for his involvement in the 26/11 attacks.
Know more about the captain of the Ship, the director: Kabir Khan (born 1971) is an Indian film director, screenwriter, and cinematographer. He started his career working in documentary films, and then made his feature film directorial debut in 2006 with Kabul Express which was followed by New York (2009) and Ek Tha Tiger (2012). Khan started his career at age 24 as a cinematographer for the Discovery Channel documentary film Beyond the Himalayas (1996) directed by Gautam Ghosh. He then made his own directorial debut with the documentary The Forgotten Army (1999) based on Subhas Chandra Bose’s Indian National Army. He then directed two more documentaries before shifting his focus to mainstream cinema. Kabir’s last directorial venture Bajrangi Bhaijaan was declared an ALL TIME BLOCBUSTER by “Box office India”.
Facts And Figures:
• Film is an adaptation of Hussain Zaidi’s book Mumbai Avengers, and the screenplay of the film has been written in co-ordination with the author. Zaidi is also associate producer of the HBO documentary Terror in Mumbai, which is based on the 26/11 attacks in Mumbai
• Saif Ali Khan and Katrina Kaif have reportedly learnt Kurdish and Arabic for their roles.
• The film earlier had a working title as Daniyal Khan, before being titled Phantom
• On 20 August, it was reported that the film was banned from release in Pakistan by the Lahore High Court after a plea was filed by Hafiz Saeed.
• Both Saif Ali Khan and Katrina Kaif have performed intense action sequences, and have not used stunt doubles for most of their scenes, having instead done the scenes themselves
• The shooting of the film was completed in 90 days.
• The worldwide premiere of the film is scheduled for the Indian Film Festival of Melbourne on its closing night, 27 August 2015.
• Shooting of the movie is done in the various international location likes Beirut, Lebnon, Turkey, Wembley and recently they completed shooting at Vancouver, Canada and now they are shooting at Gateway Of India in Mumbai. Some shots of the movie is also shoot in the beautiful location of Gulmarg in Jammu and Kashmir.
• Budget of this movie is 50 crore and Running time is 2hr 28minutes.
My Gut Feel and comments:
Hats off to the versatility of a director Kabir Khan where last month he brought Bajrangi Bhaijaan to the audience and now coming up with Phantom where in both the cases our sensitive relationship with Pakistan has been shown with two different poll apart perspectives. And in both the cases story seems to be presented with great conviction and honesty which is not an easy task. Phantom is an adaptation of Hussain Zaidi’s book Mumbai Avengers which would lead to a tight gripped screenplay and going by the credentials of Kabir khan who started his career as documentary film maker, I am sure he would have done justice to the this sensitive subject where margin of error is quite less . Kabir khan did a decent job earlier as well in case of Newyork and Ek tha tiger which is of similar plot like Phantom. He knows the art of balancing the presentation of story in realistic manner at the same time keeping the mass appeal and commercial viability intact which resulted in box office success and getting decent critical admiration. Performing consistently is a difficult task however till know Kabir Khan did able to manage to do the justice to audience expectations from his films even while choosing tricky subjects. I am expecting Phantom to be a good movie and with moderate budget it should recover the cost and do decent box office business.
I am giving this movie 3 stars out of 5 stars, six day before the release.