Anubhav Sinha's Cash falls into almost the same category as his previous film Dus in certain ways. This film too has a gallery of stars, scintillating action sequences, beautiful babes and beautiful locales. Visually, the film is quite stunning. Sinha has got his packaging quite right. But somewhere the script goes quite awry. It's the same old story: a flaccid screenplay which the director tries to dress up in various ways. Sinha too plays the game and dresses his film up. The director covers this major flaw in the film with stylized action shots and he even uses animation to a degree here. But the lack of a coherent script and screenplay does take a toll after a point. It remains another soulless wonder.

The premise of Cash is simple enough. Quite like the recent Dhoom 2, in fact. Both films are based on the age-old theme of chor-police. But never has crime and thugs been so glamorized as it has been in recent times.
The story of Cash revolves around a consummate con man (Ajay Devgan), who hires Esha Deol, Zayed Khan, Dia Mirza and Ritesh Deshmukh to steal some diamonds. The setting is in South Africa. Also after the diamonds is Suniel Shetty. The plot revolves mainly around how the parties try to outwit each other and the Security Officer played by Shamita Shetty to get to the diamonds. The story of Cash unfolds in a flashback, with Zayed's character narrating the entire story to Ayesha Takia.

As far as the actors go, they are all portrayed as cool dudes while the heroines are hot babes, bronzed to perfection. A case in point is Shamita Shetty and Esha Deol. Both actresses have perfect bodies which they flaunt with ease. Devgan plays a role quite different from his recent Omkara. The actor walks through his role with ease. In fact, he has the strongest role in the film. It's the same with a veteran like Suniel Shetty. He too essays his role with ease. A lot more could have been done with Ritesh's character, however. The actor is emerging as a good comic actor and his comic gift could have been exploited better. Zayed and Diya Mirza are just about okay. It's Shamita really who stands out among the females, while the male honours belong to Devgan and Ritesh.

Ideally, one would have expected that an action thriller would begin with a bang. But surprisingly, Cash has a very quiet beginning. The first half of the film is not as crisp as one would have wanted it to be. Sinha uses animation to introduce his characters as well, which is quite interesting. But after the device is used so many times in the film, it begins to pall. The second half where the actual heist takes place has a little more pace.

As the entire film rests on the action sequences, mention must be made of the stunts choreographed by Anthony Stone. The sequences are quite daring, again, quite in keeping with the genre. Remember Dhoom 2? The music of the film by Vishal-Shekhar is also quite in keeping with the tone of the film. The one track that stands out is the title track. It is a visual delight besides being the most catchy song in the film. Needless to say, the cinematography (Ravi Walia) is stylish, again in keeping with the director's intent of making a stylish action thriller.

Visually, one has nothing to complaint about. But it's not skin-deep beauty we are talking about. There is nothing else that one takes home, other than the so-called 'look' of the film. It's in the content department that the film fails miserably. Cash splutters and flounders in places. This is all due to the lack of a proper script. Characterisation suffers as well.

The end result is a decent visual feast but nothing beyond that. But if one chooses to ignore the lack of a sensible script, which one well might, Cash proves to be timepass fare at best!