This film belongs to the director and certainly to Aditya Roy Kapur – who delivers a very real, convincing and watchable performance
Published Date – Friday, 07/04/23 at 10:30pm
Photo: Twitter
Hyderabad: An hour or so later, fledgling filmmaker Vardhan Ketkar lays the intriguing groundwork for a murder mystery. Suspects, the police are dealing with it.
Premise: On a rainy night, Aakash Sardana encounters a gruesome murder in his apartment. We have Ronnie (Aditya Roy Kapur) as a suspect. He is the sitting duck. A man known to be capable of anything, including singing, dancing, not to mention stunts, is desperate for money to save his friend Chadi (Deepak Karla).
Chadi owed money to a gang of thugs who were willing to kill him if he did not pay back Rs 20 lakh. His looks are that of a suave yuppie living a fashionable life: Arjun (Aditya Roy Kapur). Arjun is a successful IIT graduate who has started a business and is ready for his first project. He also falls in love with Jahnavi (Vedika Pinto), who prefers tea to coffee.
On the night of the murder – the lookalike criminals were in public. A late investigating police team arrives at the crime scene, followed by Special Investigations Officer Shivani Mathur (Mrunal Thakur). Together with her colleagues, she reports to ACP Yadav (Ronit Roy).
With the picture of the assassin, ACP Yadav arrests Arjun. Predictably, a three-level approach was employed. Yadav vows to put Arjun in jail “this time”. He’s so sure that when the police arrest Ronnie for alcoholism, public nuisance and assaulting an officer on duty, he’s going to file a charge sheet. This leads to the question of who the person in the photo is: Arjun or Ronnie.
The challenge is sharpened by the first turn and the next. Storytelling must stop here. Suffice it to say that the twists and turns are interesting and engaging.
The filmmakers make sure he holds the audience’s attention by keeping the narrative to a minimum. Mystery’s running time is only about two hours. Establishing the lines of character, murder, investigation, background and purpose is proportionate.
The film belongs to the director and certainly to Aditya Roy Kapur – who delivers a very real, convincing and watchable performance. He’s again pushing bigger filmmakers to consider his case. Audiences who go to see this low-key film are bound to be satisfied and happy.
