Available – Amazon Prime
Time – 2hrs 18 mins
Age – 13+
Genre – Suspense, drama, and a tad bit preachy
Recommendation – One-time watch
Warning : There are a few spoilers.
Ten minutes into the story and I was intrigued. Snowy and treacherous mountain road, a pair of eyes peeping from behind a tall tree, and finally a fallen tree on the road nudging the protagonist out of the car and a short walk later, into a big mansion of a house.
As the other characters were introduced, I rubbed my hands in glee; this looked promising. And the premise was something different and I fervently hoped it wouldn’t disappoint me. With a power-packed star cast (and no I am not talking about Emraan Hashmi) good acting was guaranteed. We had Amitabh Bachchan, Annu Kapoor, Dhritiman Chatterjee, and Raghubir Yadav. Along with Rhea Chakraborty – who seriously had a HAM-laugh which was very artificial and grating, Krystle D’Souza, and Siddhanth Kapoor the cast was complete and the drama was all set to unfold.
So, the four seniors, and Rhea were in this mansion where Emraan took shelter, for the weather outside was bad, and remember the tree was blocking the road. Emraan discovered that the men were all related to the Judicial system. We had a defender, a prosecutor, and a judge. The fourth guy, we later find out was the hangman.
The scene unfolded and the four men enticed Emraan to play a game. A trial ensued, and now I was firmly invested in knowing Emraan’s crime and how it would be proven and what would the verdict be. Emraan played along till things got serious and uncomfortable. So far so good (minus Rhea’s laugh).
The prosecutor presented the case and this is where it got a tad bit boring because it was the case of a good old love triangle. I had hoped for something different for they had created such expectations right from the beginning. But never mind, I was willing to watch it as the treatment and the actors were doing a good job. Though the audience would recognize the red-herring almost instantly and dismiss it. But still, the story was interesting for I wanted to know how they would end it.
The drama unfolded and finally came The End. The end had me smiling and raising my eyebrow in a devilish way. So, all in all, it was a good movie.
Now for the two places where it was a downer.
The first half was interesting, building up to the case but after intermission things slowed down a bit and the love triangle came to the fore making me sigh and forcing me to comment – Really! But, it was during the closing arguments where the prosecutor played by Amitabh Bachchan goes off on a diatribe. No, no, please no, I pleaded with the big man on the screen. But guess what, he didn’t listen to me and he ranted and raved for, I think, twenty minutes. From the faults of the justice system to rape victims and their families and acid attack survivors, all valid points delivered in his impressive baritone, he still had me reaching for the remote and pressing fast-forward. Once that was over, I breathed a sigh and looked forward to the ending. Really, when the genre is suspense then why add this type of dialogue and make the movie preachy and lose the momentum?
The other was the fate that Emraan’s character met. I mean really? A lake would have been far more believable. But that is the director’s prerogative.
Despite these two things, easily overlookable, the movie is a definite one-time watch. Tell me, what did you like about the movie?
Lead Image Courtesy – The Bulletin Time
