The passion for Hollywood rip-off is breathing last and it's poorly conceived 'Speed' is one of its last remains. Director Vikram Bhatt's career is largely enthused with Hollywood rip-offs and after countless failures, this release simply adds to the list. It's a classical example where a filmmaker's amateurish attempt of rehashing couple of Hollywood flicks has gone berserk.

'Speed' is a shameful imitation from Hollywood's fast paced action packed thriller 'Cellular' in its first half, while its plot and climax in the second half get its inspiration from another Hollywood hit 'Nick of Time'. Firstly, why the film was titled "Speed" when there is no relevance of word "speed" either with its plot, theme or characters? After illogically envisaged 'Red', it's another flick from Vikram Bhatt which has English title to lure urban viewers but shows no relevance with the subject or concept of the film.

The basic problem in 'Speed' is that every event and plot is predictable from the word "go" as it has already been witnessed umpteen times by multiplex viewers in Hollywood films --- 'Cellular' or 'Nick of Time', either on DVD or on movie channels.

The worse aspect of 'Speed' is that it suffocates inadequately with half baked screenplay that comes with the teamwork of poor acting performances in the lead roles. It will be preposterous to expect anything from any entertainer if it is shouldered on mediocre actors like Zayed Khan, Aftab Shivdasani or Ashish Chaudhry.

The second half of the film contorts to the plot and climax of another Hollywood flick 'Nick of Time', which was earlier, rehashed with mediocre results in Shah Rukh Khan's 'Badshah' (1995). Now, this may sound even more absurd that such an action packed climax that was showcased almost decades ago in 'Badshah' finds its grounding in new action thriller with almost zilch impact, so what's so special about this Vikram Bhatt's film? Nothing!!! Almost nothing!!!

Siddarth (Sanjay Suri), a detective from M-5 intelligence agency, disguises himself as chef of a reputed restaurant to hide his real identity from his family and world. Poor intelligence agency is ill equipped with "angrez" boss and perplexed executive (Ashwini Kalsekar) as they failed every time to crack codes or find hideouts of their enemies. That's a big pity from scripting aspect and directorial vision but anyway our Hindi films have been bold enough to run on their heroes' shoulders. So wait and watch?

This hard core detective wife Richa (Urmila Matondkar), a science teacher by profession, is abducted by unknown set of people and taken to an undisclosed landscaped destination. Aftab Shivdasani gets another ridiculously looking makeover of a leading bad man in dark glasses and long haired attire. He is a poor match to Jason Statham's villainous get up in 'Cellular' and all thanks to his shoddy make-up and substandard costumes that make mockery of his wicked character in the film.

Zayed Khan's inconsistency as lead actor continues with a similar disgrace as he hams continuously to get into Chris Evans' character and caricature. He grimaces awfully to evoke laughter, twitches his face to show agony and giggles regularly to make his beloved glee at his silly jokes. Who is to blame - the actor, the writer or the director? Everyone!!!

The carefree attitude of this lover boy Sandeep (Zayed Khan) proves headache (and even worse headache for viewers) for his beloved Sanjana (Tanushree Dutta). He is all set to prove his might and strength to his lady love but at the "nick of time" he gets a phone call from an estranged caller Richa (Urmila Matondkar). She yells for help from a dislocated telephone. The experienced and talented Urmila salvages some pride for this Kim caricatured role with her modest performance but finally all falls apart with some ridiculously penned screenplay.

On other side, Siddarth (Sanjay Suri) is haunted by phone calls to deposit an astronomical amount from his bank account to an unidentified person. Reasons!!! No reasons supplied for this weird plot as this is where 'Speed' takes inventive turn from Hollywood's 'Cellular'.

There is another inventive (or illogical?) turn when unscrupulous cop Rohan (Ashish Chaudhry) arrives on the scene to save Indian Prime Minister's (Suhasini Mulay) life. Now we flip into another Hollywood film 'Nick of Time' plot where an innocent is intimidated to assassinate an eminent dignitary. Poor Suhasini Mulaye plays Rekha Gulzar of 'Badshah' while corrupt husband (Sachin Khedkar) is replaced by dishonest son (Raj Zutshi) with similar plot and situation.

It's pity that the character of Sergeant Mooney (William H. Macy) from 'Cellular' was not utilized to infuse bloodcurdling moments in the climax of the film. The climax was rather shouldered on a bunch of loosely penned characters with some poorly hatched plots and sub-plots that really killed every prospect of the film. Mini skirt clad Tanushree Dutta skillfully gets into gangsters' den and rescues Urmila and her kids.

Zayed Khan fights with cat-woman caricatured bombshell (Sophie Chaudhry) and joins Tanushree in this "S-O-S" mission. There is another illogical ploy where Ashish Chaudhry captures Urmila and haunts Sanjay Suri to kill Indian PM. Silly!!!

In between this tug of war of saving Indian Prime Minister, there are some terribly written characters of Amrita Arora and Sophie Chaudhry spiced up with some really pathetic song sequences. Now, imagine Indian PM asking his security chief (Ashish Chaudhry) to be "cool" and have ball of time with his beloved (Amrita Arora) till evening. This creepy looking cop makes sex with her, inhales cocaine and finally kills her as she finds his real identity. What follows later is outrageously "filmi"?

Vikram Bhatt's coarsely conceived 'Speed' is one of the biggest examples of "creative bankruptness" that has plagued filmdom for decades. It showcases mediocrity from every department of filmmaking and is evident in almost every frame of the film. There's no blasphemy to be inspired from any innovative subject but the mode has to be legal and logical in its approach and execution.

Last week there was psychological thriller 'Bhool Bhuaiyaa', a fifth legal inspirational work from Malayalam hit 'Mancharituzu', hitting the silver screen with great critical and commercial success. Though it had overtly made subject to offer, Priyadarshan's directorial intellect and Akshay Kumar's acting skills made it worth viewing. On flip side, Vikram Bhatt's 'Speed' is a disgraceful imitation of two Hollywood flicks and above all it has array of sub- standard performances and technicalities on its credits.

Pritam's music is average and has some moments to cherish in the opening track "Tikhi Tikhi" and "Love you Sonia". Pravin Bhatt's cinematography is average and works mechanically to showcase London's sites and locations. Action (Abbas Ali Moghul) delivers some thrill in the latter half of the film but the plot disappoints completely.

Among the actors, Sanjay Suri and Urmila Matondkar excel to some extent while the rest of them simply fit into their loosely penned characters. Zayed Khan is a big disappointment again while Tanushree Dutta still suffers from bad make-up and poor costumes. Ashish Chaudhry remains a side-kick material while Amrita Arora graduates from sleazy item songs to one song side-kick.

Overall, 'Speed' is a disappointing fare at the box office and certainly can be no competitor to the recently released 'Bhool Bhulaiyaa' or 'Chak De India', even though it's a solo release of this week.