Sayonara Indy: My quick take on “Indiana Jones : Dial of Destiny”
Indiana Jones was very much part of my growing up, I had first seen this leather jacket wearing, whip wielding handsome hunk with his trademark fedora hat way back in 1981/82 ( I had just passed out my SSC exams then) in Raiders of lost Arc. It was a love at first sight for me, this Lucas - Spielberg created archeologist cum adventurer was hero of my generation. Having seen all his adventures till date, loved his quest for Arc, Holy Grail and Crystal skull and enjoyed his skirmishes with Nazis.
Dial of Destiny, was touted as the swan song of this hero with the proverbial nine lives, hence for a fan like me it was a must-watch movie. It was also mentioned that movie was made on a huge budget, hence the expectations were very high. Let me confess that Indy could have got a better farewell. (I wish Spielberg had wielded the gong for the fifth time).
Big Budget was visible in the trademark chase scenes of Indiana, Production value was rich, shot in various locations. I loved the train chase sequence, also the horse in the tube (metro) sequence, the Bajaj RE chase sequence was breathtaking, however the climax VFX had enough scope of improvement. I wish the writing had complimented the technical brilliance, the plot was a damp squib, it had not so novel plot of time travel (la back to the past) where the antagonist wants to go back in time and eliminate Hitler and become fuhrer himself. Secondly the macho Indy whom I loved and adored is shown as a jaded and worn out guy taking help of his God-daughter, ये ज़रा हज़म नहीं हुआ.
If you have followed Indiana Jones earlier movies then there will be lots of old references and characters doing cameos here, which I loved. The “de-aging” of Harrison Ford in the movie is simply brilliant (remember this guy is 80+ year old, on the lighter note currently a Maharastra strong man who is also 80+ yrs old is also cracking his whip to keep his flock together 😜)
I am sure if you are a Indy fan then you will not miss this Dial of Destiny, maybe it was Indy’s ‘Destiny’ that he is not getting a “Grand farewell” at the box-office coffers. Looks like aadipurush has got some company now 🤪.
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