Qayamat
Saw Qayamat on the first day of its release. I hadn't seen a movie last week, and it felt like I was stepping into a movie theater after ages. My friend Harish commented after seeing the tag line "City under threat"; quote I hope it does not turn into "Audience under threat" unqote. Thankfully, that was not the case.

Synopsis
A lift off from 'The Rock' with a lot of Hindi potboiler masala thrown in.
Ali (Arbaaz Khan looking stupid and acting even more stupid than he did when he did the psycho performance in Daraar) and Abbas (Sanjay Kapoor doing the psycho role again after Koi Mere Dil se Pooche and not exactly maturing from the experience) along with Laila (Ishaa Koppikar in skimpy clothes to divert the public attention from these two jokers) are arms dealers and have the implicit support of ISI (Hey, don't underestimate the power of Paki bashing for a movie).
A team of scientists led by Rahul (Ashish Chowdhry, not as irritating as expected) is in the process of creating an antidote for a virus (unfortunately unnamed virus) in case of biological warfare. The virus gets stolen from the CDC (forgot the longform) lab by his colleague (Chunkey Pandey trying very desperately to raise a few laughs and failing mostly).
Arbaaz and Sanjay steal some missiles and arm the warheads with the virus. They hold an entire batch of tourists at Elphinstone jail to ransom and threaten to release the missiles on Mumbai if their demand for 1500 crores and safe passage is not met. The CM (Anjan Srivastava in a caricaturish role) brings in CBI officer Akram Sheikh (Suniel Shetty; the extra 'e' in his name doesn's seem to have improved his pronounciation or his acting skills) to get hold of the criminals and save Mumbai.
Suniel needs the help of Rachit, (Ajay Devgan back in an action role after a long time) a former associate of Arbaaz and Sanjay, who might be able to get them inside the jail as he is the only inmate who is supposed to have escaped from there.
Suniel, Ajay and Ashish with a batch of commandos enter the jail through an underground path, and everyone gets killed except Ajay and Ashish,the odd men out. It is now upto them to save the city and 213 tourists, which they do with a lot of silly action thrown in.
Now, if you are not a regular Hindi movie goer, you might wonder, where the heroines fit into this story. Well, Neha Dhupia comes in as Ajay's former love, who he thinks is dead. Riya Sen comes in as Ashish's female interest with nothing more to do than wear clothes that are barely visible, and act inane in time of peril. Raveena was supposed to have done a cameo in this film as Suniel's love interest, but her role was cut at the editing table.

Analysis
Ajay Devgan, Ashish Chowdhry and Sanjay Kapoor are tolerable. Ishaa Koppikar and Riya Sen provide the oomph factor, and have nothing more to do than wear skimpy clothes, which they seem to do well. Neha Dhupia is a disappointment.
Chunky (Monkey) Pandey tries really hard to make us laugh. I really pitied him. Did you know that he is a big draw in Bangladesh (He is a bonafide superstar there, and actually gets mobbed by people who are not paid to do so). Arbaaz Khan seems monotonous and nearly puts us to sleep. Suniel Shetty should improve his diction and/or acting skills as he is unintentionally funny.

Technique
This is Harry Baweja's best effort to date, not just as a director, but also as a producer. He seems to have spared no expense to give this film a polished look. Nadeem Shravan's songs are good, but come at very short intervals during the first half of the movie, and that too without situations for them. This slows the pace a little, but the pace of the film barring the songs is really good. The underground sets by Nitish Roy are good. Probably for the first time during a Hindi action movie, I did not find the need to crib about the sets.
I do not think I should comment on writer Suparn Verma, who did not have much of a job, except for copying stuff from 'The Rock' and putting in a few romantic scenes.
But, as far as I am concerned, the film in all its totality belongs to the cinematographer Sanjay F Gupta (he of the music videos fame). India's first digitally graded movie (This technique, as you might know, consists of grading the colours of the film after it has been shot. This improves the look and feel of the movie, as lighting defects can be removed, and a consistent look can be given to the entire movie.) is worth a look just for being that.
A little Matrix style cinematography is adopted, but seems they could not afford the 360 degree camera shot (as this requires cameras positioned throughout a 360 degrees circle around the action), as only a 90 degree one is used.

Verdict
Would I recommend this movie to someone?
Its a slick movie. Watch it for that. If you need more reason, then the script is well paced, and you enjoy most of it.
You should not see it if you cannot leave reason and credibility at home.
Laugh at the stunt scenes swiped from Mission Impossible, The Rock etc., and have a good time. Don't go if you are in the mood for some serious entertainment.
This is a popcorn movie, and enjoy it for what it is.