It's really a small world. Even though a film purporting to be as epic in proportion as Agent Vinod travels all across the world to capture some of the most never-seen spots in the world, the plot — an intelligent clever, urbane and wry melange of Bourne and Bond, Farz and Mission Impossible, finally finds its most assured resting place in apana jahaan Delhi.
The last half hour where an international terrorist outfit attempts to blow up Delhi gets the grammar of an espionage thriller so riveting and so right, you wonder what took director Sriram Raghavan so long to get there.
Agent Vinod is the kind of meticulously crafted spy drama where cerebral considerations mesh into more earthy demands of commercial Hindi cinema, like item songs in smoky bars, shootouts in dust toasted-brown locations that are as treacherous as they are daunting and, wonder of wonders, a clumsily-choreographed mujra which doesn't quite fit into the smooth storytelling.
From its opening in a Taliban-infested area, there is no dearth of intrigue in Agent Vinod. Agents, counter-agents, moles and molls, open-air flea markets and shopping malls jostle for attention in a script that appears to know its John le Carrre as well as its Nick Carter.
Raghavan spins a delicious yarn of guns and growls, but blessedly no gadgets. The action is crackling. The soundtrack is a chirpy mix of cheesy retro and contemporary techno sounds.
Agent Vinod is not quite the overwhelming experience that you would want a global espionage thriller to be. More thoughtful than thundering, more la Carre and less Bond it nonetheless take the spy genre in Hindi to a new level of finesse.
Finally, the cool quotient in Raghavan's chic spin on the espionage thriller is so high that you forget Bond and all his bloody brothers.
