It’s obvious that Bollywood is trying to merchandize itself into international markets by adapting the top-notching technical aspects and narrative aspects of Hollywood movies. Every producer wants to make a James Bond or Sherlock Holmes. There’s nothing wrong about aping Hollywood until the writing is rock solid. But Game seems to suffer from the Hollywood syndrome and a very weak script.

Game kept us teasing with its sleek visuals and boasted of a racy plot until its release. Four strangers from different parts of the world are brought together.  A politician from Thailand OP Ramsay (Boman Hirani), Bollywood actor Vikram Kapoor (Jimmy Sheirgill), a crime reporter Tisha Kanna (Sahana Goswami) from UK and a Casino owner from Istanbul, Neil Menon (Abhishek Bachchan). They are invited to the exotic island of Samos, Greece by Kabir Malhotra (Anupam Kher).

What connect them is a girl Maaya (Sarah Jane) and her death. Things turn topsy-turvy when Kabir Malhotra himself commits suicide. Soon, we have detective Sia Agnihotri (Kangana Ranaut) and her team arriving to investigate. Everyone becomes a suspect now as every suspect has a motive. It's not over till it’s over.

Surely we need to appreciate first timer Abhinay Deo for having crafted such a brilliant whodunit tale. But what goes terribly wrong over the film is the flimsily done screenplay by Althea Delmas Kaushal. The narration loses the momentum post intermission. The first half has a power-packed drama as it keeps audiences wondering about what happens next. The script writers should have worked for a similar approach in second half as well. The logic goes missing midway and why one of the four characters – Boman Hirani – is connected with Maya isn’t so convincing. The twist that comes through the sudden death of Kabir Malhotra is stupendous but not maintained.

On the performance front, Abhishek Bachchan exhibits nuanced acting with significant improvement in his body language. The suspense element revolving around his character, which is unraveled during the second half is brilliant. But Kangana Ranaut is quite over-expressive and tries imitating Hollywood’s prototyped female detectives. Anupam Kher is electrifying.

Game turns predictable pretty soon lacking smartness in writing. It’s also simple to predict the killer. Maybe the reason would be bewildering, but yes you can predict the murderer before the protagonists do it. The twist that comes through murder attempt of Sahana Gowswami is completely unconvincing.

It’s a very big disappointment from the trio Shankar-Ehasan-Loy as none of the songs are impressive. Karthik Vijay’s cinematography across the exotic locales of Istanbul, Greece, London and Italy are mind-boggling.

On the whole, ‘Game’ excels with its visuals, commendable performance by Abhishek Bachchan, but sinks due to poor writing.

Verdict: Visual treat with poor content