A good story set up that loses itself in the maze of gore and convenience. But memorable for two very strong performances from John Abraham and Sanjay Dutt in pivotal roles, and an extremely stylish treatment from Director Sanjay Gupta.
Vengeance is mine! And Sanjay Gupta sinks his teeth into the brutal side of gore with a vengeance! Zinda, in content and storyline, is like a pulp fiction novel in celluloid, but in finishing and technical quality of product has had the budget and finesse of a superdeluxe hardbound. From its absolutely fabulous sound design to the excellent cinematography with that breathtaking chase sequence in which Sanjay Dutt dashes after his fleeing quarry through Chinatown, you cannot fault Zinda technically. It is definitely going to be one of the most stylish films of the year, and we've only just begun. A good performance from John Abraham was long overdue after Jism, and in Zinda he comes to the fore with a strong, riveting performance as the psychotic, revenge-crazed killer with a suave exterior, more than holding his own against the screenplay-assisted Sanjay Dutt who, without doubt, is the not just the film’s but Sanjay Gupta’s hero too.
But let’s get back to the place where pulp fiction meets Zinda right at the beginning, where Sanjay Dutt (Bala, short for Balajit), a software expert who is celebrating his first wedding anniversary with lovely wife Nisha (Celina Jaitley in a tiny role but this is about vengeance, remember?). Strangely, he’s in the company of his friend Joy (Mahesh Manjrekar in yet another forgettable role after Jawani Diwani). Even more strangely, his good friend has the hots for Bala’s lovely wife, and makes no bones about it! Hmmm but that entire sequence is to establish that Bala and his wife have just moved to Bangkok and are in the process of setting up house and settling in.
And at that point, Bala’s world turns upside down. We suddenly find him caged in a small cell, pleading with his unknown captors to tell him why he is being held, and who is holding him, but to no avail. Every day , twice a day, a tray of food only fried wonton, by the way is shoved into his cell. Every day he resolves to toughen himself, to prepare himself for the day he believes he will inevitably win his freedom. The months become years and Bala resolves that he will neither break nor bend; instead, he is determined that he will find the identity of his captor, who, by the way, has got his wife killed and implicated Bala for the murder. So Bala resolves to some day exact a terrible revenge for the years of confinement. Actually, not just two or three years, but 14 -- for each of which Bala has carved out a line on the back of his hand, and during each of those years, has also taught himself the martial arts. By copying the b-grade martial arts movies, how else?
And suddenly, 14 years after he was first thrown into the cell, suddenly, one day, Bala is released. He has no idea who his captor was, or why he his freedom had been snatched away for 14 years. Now, consumed by the desire for vengeance, he sets out without a single clue about the identity of his captor.
And Zinda is set to take off. So far, pretty gripping stuff, well shot, stylishly narrated, and powerfully performed by Sanjay Dutt as the smoldering Bala.
 Unfortunately, from here on, the story and its treatment becomes not just very filmy but also rather unbelievable at places. Consider this: Bala, just released, is absolutely clueless about where he was held prisoner, by whom, and why. And obviously, to get to his captor, he needs to find the place where he was held. How do you suppose he does that? By asking a lovely Indian taxi driver woman (his future love interest in the story Lara Dutta) to drive him to every big and small restaurant in Bangkok so he can -- hold your breath sniff out and taste the fried wontons he was fed each and every day for 14 years! But of course, Bala has his head held high and his nose in front, and he does find the restaurant, and after a brilliantly filmed chase sequence, nabs a goon and finally lands up at the hell hole he was confined in. But sniffing out the exact same wontons?! Good thing the cook didn’t change in 14 years! In the process, with the help of his self-acquired martial arts skills from watching television alone, Bala beats up not one, two or four, but around twenty armed and vicious hoods, then, with a knife plunged up to the hilt in his back, he thrashes another handful, and finally walks out, bleeding, and collapses
And then, Bala finds himself in the lovely taxi driver’s home overnight, a doctor has stitched him up, prescribed medication, and the next morning, our man is running from the taxi driver’s house to his captor’s home close by, leaping like a gazelle across bamboo floats on a river, bounding up and down stairs three at a time.
And how come the owner of the torture-cum-confinement house that kept him cooped for 14 years actually kept a well labelled audio record of all its illegal confinements as recordings of tele-conversations with its clients? The little conveniences of the screenplay get curioser and curiouser. The biggest problem with character motivation is towards the end what was the need for Rohit to make the choice he does in the end?
And the worst aspect is the manic, bordering on perverse love Director Sanjay Gupta lavishes on the depiction of gore. Plunging electric drills into a thug to coerce a confession; wrenching out teeth one by one (with the split end of a hammer that’s normally used to yank out nails) and letting each tooth drop on the victim’s chest with its bloody root showing; cutting off a hand; chopping off an arm and more -- all exquisitely shot, though, and so chillingly real they make you wince with acute discomfort.
But if you can overlook the foregoing, then Zinda is a pacy pulp fiction yarn that more than lives up to its tagline of ‘One act of vengeance deserves another’. The pace is maintained, especially till the intermission that comes up on the hour, and for a 16-reeler that’s a bit early, but till then, it’s taut, engrossing going. And even after, the story rolls on, to reveal the reason behind the terrible vengeance that Rohit (John) wants to extract on Bala. But in the process we see a side of schoolboy bullying so truly perverse it drives a girl to suicide. Where do you see school kids writing: Meri Bahan 15 rupaye mein deti hai’, or discussing who will deflower a classmate first? Also the psychotic Rohit’s lecture to the school kids all about pouncing upon your prey at the opportune moment is hardly appropriate for school children, but then, he’s just being true to his psychotic form.
So, the long and short of it? If you are a pregnant lady, or an average person normally sensitive to pain and suffering, well, parts of this film could churn your stomach violently. Otherwise, true to Sanjay Gupta form, Zinda is a highly stylized, pacy story with topline production values, stylish shot and slickly edited. A good story set up that loses itself in the maze of gore and convenience. But memorable for two very strong performances from John Abraham and Sanjay Dutt in pivotal roles, and an extremely stylish treatment from Director Sanjay Gupta.
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