This movie is directed by Honey Trehan, who is a casting director. And his casting for this movie is very similar to what a gardener would do when making a salad. The gardener knows where the choicest of vegetables are and what will taste the best and those are added to the salad. Each vegetable stands out but compliments the others too.
And that is what is going on in this movie too. The ensemble cast is superb and though not allotted huge chunks of screentime, they do have at least one scene each where they are brilliant. Consider this, we have someone of the capability of Shweta Tripathi blending into the background till she erupts in the one scene she is given. So also Ila Arun. She has amazing chemistry with Nawazuddin and you must have seen them together recently in Ghoomketu. Ila Arun is always a mood elevator for me I love to watch her.
The genre of this film has been touted as a Closed Room Whodunnit and I could debate this categorisation and it's comparison to Knives Out, till I am hoarse. The chain of events for the viewer starts with an apparently random brutal act, followed by the actual murder. And then follows a police investigation which isn't restricted to just finding out who the murderer is, but also navigates layers of society constructs.
Nawazuddin Siddiqui is the cop called out to investigate the murder, and it is after Haramkhor that I have seen him give such a controlled performance. More along the lines of how his talent was used in "Kahaani" and "Teen".
Ila Arun is his mother and they together bring the house down. In a superb gender reversal, it's he who gets rejected by a girl for being too dark skinned. And his loving mother then gets him a tube of Fair and Lovely. :-) :-)
There is the language of course, which uses adjectives like "Vivek shoonya" and that made me giggle. There is Tigmanshu Dhulia trying to pull off a gluttonous police chief, but I think Manoj Pahwa did it better in Dabangg. Aditya Shrivastava plays the mandatory corrupt politician, who is trying to influence the investigation. Wait a minute, isn't it actually redundant to call a politician corrupt! 😂😂😂
There is Radhika Apte of course, whose name in the movie is Radha, and I didn't register this till I was about half through, simply because she is always being referred to derogatorily with some epithet or the other.
She is a good artiste and doesn't disappoint at all.
If you are going to watch this one, remember you couldn't possibly figure out who did it! There are several convoluted back stories going on and the plot is contrived to not reach a logical conclusion. The cinematography is good, though I wish they had more light in some scenes.
It could have been shorter and slicker, but it is a good watch nonetheless.
Cheers.
See you on the other side of Shakuntala Devi.
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