MY FAVOURITE PROTAGONIST SAIF ALI KHAN IN RACE - Rtr. Faheem Bagwan
Ranvir Singh is a businessman and a very hardcore kind of businessman who owns a stud farm and horse racing business named Stallions Incorporation Breeders. Race is his business, his passion, his life. He is a deadlier man with secrets. On the track of life he race with death. He doesn’t mind if you beat him fair and square but if anyone back-stabs him then he can take a pretty serious revenge and can turn ruthless & commit murders. He says “He doesn’t mind if anyone defeats him and take away his life but he doesn’t forgive the one who betrays”.
He is an outsmarting man who can go up to any extent to win the battle. He doesn’t mind losing with honesty but dislikes people who deceive. As he says in the film “Mujhe sirf imaandaar logo se darr lagta hai.” Which means “He fears no one but is only afraid of honest people”. He creates situations which forces his enemy to speculate that they are way ahead of him and race is going on according to their plan but no can defeat him because he is ahead of them all.
When he discovers that his accident wasn’t a coincidence but rather his younger brother has intentions to kill him to inherit the insurance money of 100 million dollars. He then plans for a 200 million dollars insurance policy inheritance brilliantly with involving the cop R.D by offering him 25% share from his inheritance and cheats his own death in the eyes of world.
In the climax Ranvir wins the race because he plays to win whereas Rajiv plays to defeat.
Race was released on 21st march 2008 starring Saif Ali Khan, Bipasha Basu, Akshaye Khanna and Katrina Kaif in lead roles alongside Anil Kapoor and Sameera Reddy in supporting roles. The film was directed by the famous suspense thriller director-duo Abbas Burmawala & Mustan Burmawala and was produced by Ramesh S. Taurani and Kumar S.Taurani under their production banner Tips Films/Tips Industries.
The film garnered positive response from the audience but received mixed response from the critics. The film was extensively shot in Durban, Cape town in South Africa and Dubai (UAE). The film was the 4th highest grossing film of 2008. Made on a budget of 460 million inr the film grossed 1.03 billion worldwide. The music and background score of the film became sensational instantly.
The film is based on the theme of sibling rivalry. Everyone portraying shades of grey. At the time of its release the film was ahead of its time in terms of action drama, story, suspense, music, style, dialogues, exotic locations and especially the car chasing sequence in the climax which was new in Bollywood which bounded audience on the edge of their seats and was certified U/A by the CBFC because of some intimate scenes between the two leading actors and some crime scenes.
Though Saif wasn’t the 1st choice of the makers initially Akshay Kumar was considered for this role. Saif was initially offered the role of the younger brother “Rajiv Singh” but he declined and the role eventually went to Akshaye Khanna who carried large portion on his shoulders as the villain of the film. Later in an interview the producer Ramesh Taurani quoted that Saif has never done action films before so it would be amazing to see him in such a new deadly look. And now its been more than 10 years of the film’s release and now even the audience say that no one else can do Race like he did.
Now after the release of Race 3 not only the fans of this franchise but also the general audience admitted that Race series is incomplete without the screen presence of Saif Ali Khan. I hope the makers will now rope in again Saif Ali Khan, and Abbas-Mustan on the directors’ seat in the 4th instalment of the franchise and not commit the same mistake by casting Salman Khan in the lead role.
By
Rtr. Faheem Bagwan
Member
Rotaract Club Of TCET