Director / Writer- Behzad Khambata
Cast -Sunny Deol, Karan Kapadia, karanvir Sharma, Ishita Dutta, Jameel Khan, Boloram Das
Is an action thriller based around a terrorist attack being planned in Mumbai with a fast paced cat and mouse game between ATS team and the terrorists.
The trailers gave us an idea of an interesting and unusual premise in which an accident victim is found to be a live suicide bomber with a bomb embedded in his body. And for a change, let’s stop trying to find credulity in it and just enjoy the novelty value of the concept.
Debutant director Behzad Khambata gives us an impressive opening with the suicide bomber ( Karan Kapadia) in front of the firing squad of ATS. The narrative goes back to tell us about the preceding 12 hrs and then forward again from where the movie starts.
The story moves forward on many fronts. While the ATS squads ( Ishita Dutta , Karanvir Sharma ) are trying hard to chase the leads that are trickling in, ATS chief ( Sunny) is trying to get the information out of the bomber who seems to remember almost nothing but few glimpses of his apparent past. Somewhere else , we are shown glimpses of a terrorist organisation chief (Jameel Khan) impregnating the young minds for Jihad.
The rest of the movie will eventually join the dots in quite a suspenseful and pacy way.
The many things that impress us about the movie are the narrative style , the pace , the action and the touch of mystery they maintain till quite the climax where the turn the tables.
Cinematography by debutant RDee is quite impressive. Quite many scenes are shot in closed premises, cluttered alleys and dingy hideouts and the camera focus doesn’t relent from where its supposed to keep your attention.
Action sequences by Vikram Dahiya are great and impressive. Very smoothly choreographed , performed and shot.
Editing by Sanjay Sharma deserves a credit for keeping the pace relentless. Right from the opening scene to the intermission, and then till the climax, the suspense, the chases , the mystery remained. There wasn’t a moment of laxity that could be found.
Performances wise , Karan Kapadia, the debutant looks promising. He gives a quite restrained portrayal with minimal drama, emotions or hysteria. Can’t say if that was a superb performance as per the need of the character or a rough around the edges actor. Notably impressive is his ease with the action sequences which are the only places we see him high on energy.
And speaking of energy, Sunny looks notably tired except when he is pouting those high octane dialogues in his trademark style. His tired demeanour though has been given a reason with his character having a slightly disturbed family life.
In Ishita Dutta ‘s third movie that I have seen (First two being Dhrishyam & Firangi), the only thing consistent are her pinched expressions. She does seem sincere in her efforts though, wondering if that counts.
Karanvir Sharma wasn’t given much to bite on but seemed to impress nevertheless. Would like to watch out for him to appear in a meaty role.
Music wise,two numbers that run in background seemed pleasant. Not counting the silly item number gifted by Akshay ,in the end credits, as his contribution to help launch his wife’s cousin.
Overall, I found the movie very interesting and even impressive for reasons explained above.Some rough edges and the improbability of the central premise deserves to be taken into stride.
It will surely entertain you and keep you glued.
If you like pacy thrillers high on action & chases, you must go for it .
Score 7 on 10