Xtreme Vogue Islamabad Desk: Sidra Yusuf
Star Cast: Janhvi Kapoor, Gulshan Devaiah, Adil Hussain, Roshan Mathew, Rushad Rana, Rajesh Tailang
Director: Sudhanshu Saria
What’s Good: New angle to the espionage thriller as this film focuses on diplomats
What’s Bad: The first half leaves us entangled (ulajh) in too many threads that at face-value are not easily comprehensible
Loo Break: Maybe. You might miss a crucial point
Watch or Not?: If you like an Indian film treated as a slick Hollywood-like thriller with all the plus-es and minus-es vis-à-vis Indian sensibilities
Language: Hindi
Available On: Theatrical release
Runtime: 134 Minutes
User Rating:
Suhana Bhatia (Janhvi Kapoor) is the apple of the eye of her family and is working in the Indian Foreign Service in Kathmandu. She is summoned to Delhi and appointed as India’s new Deputy High Commissioner to London. Her seasoned diplomat father (Adil Hussain) admires her but is a shade skeptical about how well she will handle the responsibility. He is not demonstrative and has never been. He is the son of another illustrious patriot and famous Indian government official.
When Suhana assumes office in London, she befriends a similarly lonely new entrant into London (Gulshan Devaiah) and they get intimate, though her driver (Rajesh Tailang) warns her not to be out late. That one night of indiscretion leads to terrible consequences for Suhana as her date reveals that he is working for ISI and now has their incriminating video. Suhana thus has to provide him the vital Indian defense details that he wants—or else!
Suhana is in a dreaded predicament and considers both suicide and resignation. When her departmental colleague, Jacob (Meiyang Chang), gets suspicious of her and accosts her late one night, he is shot dead at her home by a sniper. That is when she rebels and decides to fight the entire corrupt coterie that has inveigled her into the mess. Involved in all this is her father’s promotion and the Pakistani prime Minister’s visit to India as he wants his cordial relationship between India and Pakistan.
Script Analysis
Parveez Shaikh and director Sudhanshu Saria have written a script that entangles the viewer unnecessarily in the first half. The complex web of politics and machinations both in India and Pakistan and the deep-rooted conspiracies could have been shown in simpler fashion rather than in the many convoluted threads that includes Pakistani politicians along with Indian politicians, a corrupt RAW official, and others in London who are not what they seem to be.
The piquant twist of Suhana being assigned by RAW to investigate the defense leaks she was herself responsible for under blackmail is clever, and it gives Suhana an edge of sorts, though even that is partly manipulated. However, the way Suhana and Jacob’s bosom friend, Sebin Josephkutty (Roshan Mathew), land up in Mumbai jointly for an investigation into an attempt to assassinate the Pakistani PM, and how Suhana figures it all out in London seem far-fetched.
After this, it is the usual ‘nail-biting’ scenario of how the assassination almost happens and Suhana gets due justice and honor for her actions that saved India’s image. All of these lead to a delayed admission by her father that he was wrong about her. He also regrets that their relationship was not open enough for her to confide her troubles in him. And we also have the final twist—an offer for Suhana to serve the country differently. Now that looks like a sequel in the offing!
However, despite the natural dialogues (Atika Chohan) in which some cuss words have been blanked out by the CBFC, the script had a lot of room for improvement, as it hovers uncomfortably between the novel and the inane. The angle of a sympathetic-to-India Pakistani PM being saved by an Indian has been recently seen in Tiger 3 and may not really excite viewers’ sympathy, despite the high face-value that film had.
Star Performance
Janhvi Kapoor, once again after Mili, shows that she can shoulder a solo release with comfort. Her eloquent eyes also do half the job for her. Gulshan Devaiah again gets into vicious mode and expertly manages to be an endearing flame for one night and a rogue otherwise. Rushad Rana’s character seems quite fake but he acts decently. Rajesh Tailang, as Suhana’s chauffeur, is superb and perhaps his is the best male performance in this film. Roshan Mathew is good and convincingly plays Suhana’s antagonist-turned-helper.
Ulajh Movie Review: Direction, Music
Sudhanshu Saria, the next time, should develop and refine the Indian side of his sensibilities after his past work that has got more international fame. This applies both to his writing and his direction.
Shashwat Sachdev’s music is mildly decent but forgettable. His self-rendered “Main hoon tera ae watan” sounds nice within the film, with decent lyrics by Kumaar.
The Last Word
Watch this one if you (a) like espionage thrillers (b) are already in August 15 mode (c) you love Janhvi Kapoor and (d) you like Gulshan Devaiah. But producer Vineet Jain of Junglee Pictures had done the emotional female-centric espionage drama leagues better in Raazi.
Two and a half stars!
