Based on former investigative journalist S Hussain Zaidi's Mumbai Avengers, Kabir Khan's Phantom was never meant to be a great piece of cinema. The plot and story, however, had the potential of turning it into the perfect Bollywood potboiler. But, what mars the final product is extremely bad acting by Katrina Kaif and Saif Ali Khan and a loose script.

Fed up and humiliated by Pakistan's attacks on Indian soil and particularly the one that rocked Mumbai on 26/11, RAW decides to undertake a deadly unofficial mission. While the chief of RAW - Roy (Sabyasachi) is still not convinced, it is his sub-ordinate, Zeeshan Ayub's character that shows conviction towards the plan. They soon zero in on Daniyal Khan (Saif Ali Khan) a court-martialled army man to carry out their mission. Thus he takes off to London, Beirut, Syria and Pakistan hunting down each of the terrorists involved in the 26/11 mission.

Kabir Khan chose to call his latest film on Indo-Pakistan relationship Phantom. Phantom: As per Oxford Dictionary, a ghost / a figment of the imagination. In Khan's world, Phantom is a mission that doesn't exist. Much like his story, logic and a lot more in this so-called edge-of-the-seat thriller.

Fact, fiction and fantasy are mixed in slapdash style in Phantom. Some parts of the explosive drama that co-writer and director Kabir Khan creates are gripping, but the rest of the action is either poorly paced or painfully perfunctory. Imagine a sequence in which two Indian secret agents are in the Syrian army's line of fire in rebel-controlled Qudssaya, with a Pakistani operative tracking them.

PHANTOM starts off with the visuals of the 26/11 Mumbai attack. This is immediately followed by a high octane car chase sequence between Daniyal Khan (Saif Ali Khan) and an unknown man in Chicago (US) who bangs his car and tries to drive away. Daniyal finally gets hold of him but accidentally kicks him off the bridge into the river below. This, then, leads to an array of flashback events, which establishes the connection between Daniyal Khan's past to his present day life.

One would have thought that after films like D-Day and Baby, there would be nothing new to offer in a film revolving around an intelligence operation behind enemy lines and yet, Kabir Khan succeeds in coming up with a thriller fast-paced enough to keep you on the edge of your seats. Based on Hussain Zaidi's novel Mumbai Avengers, Phantom is fast, pacy, thrilling and patriotic in the right places.

The last Bollywood outing to Pakistan, crafted by Kabir Khan, involved a nave lover of Hanuman, who was a little thick between the ears but had a lot of heart. Parts of 'Bajrangi Bhaijaan' were cheerfully subversive, cheeky, and fresh and helped us sail through the film.

After Bajrangi Bhaijaan with Salman Khan, a lot was expected from filmmaker Kabir Khan with his recent release, Phantom. Starring Saif Ali Khan and Katrina Kaif, this venture sheds light on the 26/11 attacks that took place in Mumbai in the year 2008 and speaks of a story, 'you wish were true.' It presents a take on how justice could have been brought to Indians post these horrific attacks. 7 years later, the culprits still haven't been caught, let alone convicted, which is precisely Phantom's point.

An eye for an eye would leave the whole world blind. Mahatma Gandhi said that a few decades ago. In essence what he really meant was that revenge is never really worth it. Especially so, when dealing with social and political circumstances. Yet, Kabir Khan's Phantom advocates the cause of vigilante justice fuelled by violence. It's okay to kill half a dozen men because they purported the terrorist attacks on Mumbai.

There is a gripping scene in this film when one of the key characters desperately asks a few navy officers, "Do you remember that night of 26/11 when you felt the most helpless and vulnerable?" That line and the film brings back that dreaded feeling that most of us went through seven years ago. The night when terrorists blatantly entered the city to take us under siege and ended up killing thousands of citizens, and nothing was the same again.

There is a lot that a film-going audience can forgive in a production -- from continuity errors to script flaws, from incoherent cinematography to weak plots. But one of the hardest to overlook is when the filmmakers pick the wrong people for the principal parts. Truly remarkable lead actors are magic -- they salvage a bad film or shoulder a good one, and shine even when the film around them is flimsy -- but even merely suitably-chosen actors can, at the very least, make a film appear adequate.

A shamed army officer, Daniyal Khan (Saif) is living a life of anonymity. Court-martialed because evidence points out that he was not with his team when the enemy attacked, he yearns to earn his stripes back. As it so happens, there is a covert intelligence group, who is seething that the Centre has not been able to avenge the 26/11 Mumbai carnage.

There is only one explanation for Phantom: the cast and crew of the film really wanted a paid holiday. This in itself is not an objectionable aspiration. Who doesn't want to be able to bounce around London, Beirut, Chicago and other beautiful parts of the world, and get paid to do so? However, when the cost of that bouncing around is approximately Rs 55 crores and those who foot that bill expect the movie-going public to recover that amount as box office collection, things may get a little more complicated.