Drona - disappointing

I was reading an article in a magazine last week, and it was talking about the forthcoming release of Drona. The article raved about this being a highly acclaimed technical movie, with an incredible amount of hard work and technical effects thrown in, and I was eagerly anticipating the movie. I managed to cajole the spouse and parents to see the movie along with me, and even though reviews were out by that time and did not promise much, I still went along. Bad decision, I should have believed the reviews.
Drona is a movie about a secret as old as existence, from the Hindu mythology where the Gods and Demons (asuras) churned the seas a long long time back, and one of the secrets that emerged was the elixir of ever-lasting life (amrit) which would make the owner live forever. In order to keep it away from the demons (you would not give anything so powerful to the demons), it was decided that there would be a set of warriors who would forever protect the secret of this 'amrit', and they and their descendants would be called 'Dronas'. In addition, there would another set of warriors to protect them. And here is this 'Cindrella' in the shape of a man, who has been terrorized since childhood by a horrid foster mother, who would suddenly discover that he is the 'Drona', and then go through mysteries aided by a beautiful protector. He would fight the evil monster who killed his father, and save the secret.



What a fantasy. Imagine the story with its deep magic, mystery, and special effects that would make this movie on the class of a Peter Pan, or a Harry Potter, but the movie failed miserably to do anything in this regard. The movie did not have much of magic, it had a fairly comic villain who would repeat a phrase so many times that you got sick of it, you had not too much good music, not much of action except for a car chase, a scene on a train, and a couple others, but there was something missing. Somehow the picture was not gripping enough, and even though I was forcing myself to not be overall critical right away, there was just not enough excitement.
For all this, I don't lay too much blame at the heads of either Abhishek Bachchan, or Priyanka Chopra (for her, it was a big role, pity it did not work out), or the criminal display of Kay Kay Menon as a shallow (not much cunning or mystery in him) magician who was also a demon (he just did not look or act like a demon, more like a normal villain who knew some magic). Most of the mistake I would lay at the door of the Director, Goldie Behl. There was not enough guidance about how to make this movie, sparkle, where even a movie like Krrsh, with its limited story, was still gripping enough with some good action. Jaya Bachchan was totally wasted.