IBTimes India Rating: 2.5

When a film's lead actress appears on a putative battlefield with salon-ready hair, you know it's bound to go wrong.

"Phantom" is an adaptation of Hussain Zaidi's book "Mumbai Avengers", and on paper it has the potential to be an edge-of-the-seat thriller. Unfortunately, Kabir Khan's version has more loopholes than it has the scope for.

Daniyal Khan, a court-martialled ex-army man, is pretty much brought back from the dark pages of history, to be sent on a covert mission the Research and Analysis Wing (RAW) plans with help from former agent Nawaz Mistry (Katrina Kaif).

Daniyal, who was wrongly convicted, wants his stripes back and therefore takes up the dangerous mission. Nawaz has a strong emotional connect with the Taj Mahal Hotel cafe and so cannot bring herself to fathom what the terrorists did to it.

Very Predictable 

What follows next is a battery of decently-choreographed chases and war scenes. For a fleeting moment, the speeding bullets mean serious damage but the rush doesn't last long, leaving the audience underwhelmed and craving for more.

Saif has a one-size-fits-all expression, which bears resemblance to the characters he played in "Kurbaan" and "Agent Vinod".

Katrina should really stick to doing roles that don't push the actor out of her because one has to then deal with more horror than what she has already brought to the movie with her questionable acting skills.

Kabir could have given the topic a subtle treatment instead of making his film's protagonist a globetrotting avenger who, for most part, is driven by the wrongs he was subjected to.

In a nutshell, "Phantom" could have been avoided all together.

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