Cast – Saiyami Kher, Roshan Mathew,Amruta Subhash
Director – Anurag Kashyap
The film that was much anticipated , it being a AK direction, was being touted as a thriller and a satire on demonetisation.
The story revolves around a lower middle class housewife, Sarita ( Saiyami). She’s struggling with a gloomy life comprising of some broken aspirations, a monotonous bank job , lack of money, gruelling daily life and jobless husband Sushant( Roshan) with a bitter relationship.
Her life takes a turn when her chocked kitchen drain starts spewing packed rolled currency notes. Further chaos ensues when demonetisation is announced. A coercive blackmailing debtor, nosy neighbours , demonetisation woes , a robbery and a raid are a part of the mumbo jumbo.
The film does make a fine and promising start.The close up of daily grind of lower middle class life , the two central characters , their failing relationship has all been done well. Reminded me of films like Katha. In the initial part , there was a touch of mystery too . But beyond that , things get muddled up. In his effort to try and fit in the demonetisation angle , AK messes it up. The second half seems to loose its grip.
Overall , the film fails to impress. Sharpness that could be expected from a Kashyap film is missing. As a satire , it was a bad one. As a thriller , it was a slow one. It was the performances, the interesting premise and the realistic portrayal of life that gave it some teeth. Saiyami ( the Mirzya girl) is very impressive as the middle class Marathi woman , not only in terms of emotions but she was bang on with her body language ,diction and mannerisms.