Kabir Khan’s thriller ‘Phantom’ starring Saif Ali Khan and Katrina Kaif comes up with same old theme of terrorism and India-Pakistan relations as it talks about 26/11 Mumbai attacks. The script of the movie is loosely knit and lacks freshness. Even the action sequences are not extraordinary, even though they are fast paced and competent to keep viewers engaged. Both Nawaz Mistry (Katrina Kaif) and Daniyal (Saif Ali Khan)  try everything to accomplish their mission even if it means risking their lives. The movie is not saved by power packed performances as it struggles between fact, fiction and fantasy. The songs in the film act as saviour to the storyline as that is the only thing which is left lingering in audiences mind. Phantom is said to begin well in the start but looses completely by the end.

There was much hue-and-cry about the overdose of jingoism in Katrina Kaif-Saif Ali Khan-starrer Phantom when the first trailer was released. Based on former investigative journalist S Hussain Zaidi's novel Mumbai Avengers, director Kabir Khan's Phantom was never meant to be a great piece of cinema. Never mind that the original plot and the story had everything in it that could be turned into an edge-of-the-seat thriller Bollywood has been waiting for years. But what mars the final product is pedestrian acting, by both Katrina Kaif and Saif Ali Khan, and a loose script. Watch Phantom just for the character actors if you have to. All of them -- Sohaila Kapur, Mohammed Zeeshan Ayyub and Sabyasachi Chakraborty -- deliver power-packed performances, as if to compensate for the lead pair's lack of acting skills.

Saif Ali Khan and Katrina Kaif's Phantom sets out to avenge the 26/11 Mumbai Attacks, but ends up as something else. Zoned out? This is exactly the kind of buffoonery one ends up spending time on during the film. There are so many long-drawn pauses and sub-plots, and so many new faces introduced at the drop of a hat, that you can't help but steer yourself out of the maze that is Phantom. Kabir Khan's treatment of the story is at best passable. Parts of the film are tight and paced well. Some of the suspense is delivered properly; others, lost in transmission. Phantom begins fine, and then loses way so badly that by the end, you're just waiting for an extra helping of Afghan Jalebi. Among the songs, that's the one that stays on the mind long after the credits roll. By the end of Phantom, one is left with a disarray of emotions within.

Fact, fiction and fantasy are mixed in slapdash style in Phantom. Some parts of the explosive drama that co-writer and director Kabir Khan creates are gripping, but the rest of the action is either poorly paced or painfully perfunctory. Phantom begins with a car chase in Chicago, which ends with a man plunging into the icy waters of a river. Actually that is precisely what Phantom is like as the whole - its flashy firepower seems like a lot of wasted ammunition. Katrina Kaif is as pretty as ever, but that clearly is the last thing that she is supposed to be in this film. t is only the glycerine under her eyes in a scene in the second half that suggests how aggrieved she is at what the terrorists did to the Taj. Her face reveals nothing at all. The better actors in the cast - Sabyasachi Chakrabarty, Rajesh Tailang and Mohammad Zeeshan Ayyub - are no more than mere passengers on this jerky ride. Phantom is a film that knows where it is going, but has no clue how to get there.

The last Bollywood outing to Pakistan, crafted by Kabir Khan, involved a naïve lover of Hanuman, who was a little thick between the ears but had a lot of heart. Parts of ‘Bajrangi Bhaijaan’ were cheerfully subversive, cheeky, and fresh and helped us sail through the film. The director is back with another fairy-tale of an Indian conquering the world (read the war-torn areas of the Middle East which are basically used as conduits to where the film wants to get; yes, Pakistan again) and this time around there is, disappointingly, no crackle, only fizz. Not only is the telling of ‘Phantom’ tepid, the story itself seems to have been cobbled together from the adventures of Messrs Bond and Bourne and and several other worthies on the same much-trodden beat. We keep waiting for Daniyal Khan, played by Saif Ali Khan, to rev up the proceedings as he and his pretty fellow-traveller Nawaz Mistry (Katrina Kaif) shoot and scoot through gun-and-cordite filled streets of Beirut and Syria via Chicago, London and Mumbai. In vain.  And that leaves us with Saif, clearly floundering after his past few duds, including ‘Agent Vinod’, which had him traverse some of the same territory. Maybe he can still stave off our enemies and save us. But it’s not happening in this film. No siree.

A shamed army officer, Daniyal Khan (Saif) is living a life of anonymity. Court-martialed because evidence points out that he was not with his team when the enemy attacked, he yearns to earn his stripes back. As it so happens, there is a covert intelligence group, who is seething that the Centre has not been able to avenge the 26/11 Mumbai carnage. As cinema, this thriller is over-simplified, though the gloss adds to the large-screen appeal. Saif is adept; Kat is pretty appealing (pun on the pretty because her make-up is intact even in the battlefield). Zeeshan and his jingoism in the climax gives you that proud-India moment. And, if you're still licking the wounds of that senseless Mumbai massacre, then Phantom is the balm you should reach out for.