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Naqaab is a watchable thriller

Raja Sen
July 13, 2007 19:57 IST

The best thing about Naqaab is that it's just two hours long.

The incredible thing, though, is that it still manages to overstay its welcome -- with a climax lathered on and on, the final twists merely being the facts that the film isn't over yet. Or yet. Or yet. Sigh.

For all that, Abbas-Mustan (credited in the film's titles as Director Duo) have done their fair share of contrived countertwisting. The proceedings are breezy and while nobody really cries bloody murder -- this isn't really a thriller -- the film is never tedious and the actress is pretty.

So yeah, it's watchable.

Not that it's original, of course. A friend nudged me in the direction of Matthew Parkhill's 2003 film, Dot The I, starring Gael Garcia Bernal. The plot synopsis reads quite the same, so while our Director Duo seem to have faithfully filched a decent thriller, the problem lies in the reworking. Not in the adaptation itself, but in the tone, the film's pitch.

A still from NaqaabThis is a cheeky concept, and would have worked very nicely to raise the audience's eyebrows mildly, while amusing them with its cleverness. Where Abbas-Mustan miscalculate awfully is with their decisions to keep the film Bollywoody, playing the big twists for intensity rather than wit, and falling into the very same clich's the film's main character rallies against.

Naqaab begins with fisheye lenses prowling zippily across the shelves of our villain, unsurprisingly revealing that someone whose shelves contain DVDs of Kabhie Alvida Naa Kehna and Fanaa [Images] is most likely to also have a gun lying around. Anyway, just as we're getting used to the refreshing editing cuts, the scene shifts spasmodically to our heroine, and turns into a music video.

Urvashi Sharma plays Sophia, a girl who works at Burger King by day and comes home to sleep in a posh pad where her bedroom folds out of her shower. How so? Well, she's hooked herself a multimillionaire boyfriend, Karan (Bobby Deol [Images], sensitive to the annoying hilt).

So while Karan raves over Satyajit Ray, wears his pink shirts and makes his ladylove breakfast, Sophia agrees blissfully to marry him.

Meanwhile, the brash, awfully dressed Vicky (Akshaye Khanna [Images]) ends up dancing with her after being prompted by an usher who harps about Egyptian traditions before breaking into a conveniently Hindi song.

But all's possible in this version of Dubai, where the just-engaged girl shares a tremendously intimate song with the upstart, coming close enough to an actual kiss, before a glass is dropped (no subtlety, it's nearly hurled to the floor) and the spell breaks.

A still from NaqaabAnd all this while we hear the telltale whirr of watching cameras. Everything our characters are going through is being filmed, with Akshaye and Bobby and Urvashi constantly being watched. Occasionally, we glimpse a hand with a serpentine tattoo. But that's that, as the tale goes on.

The conceit is 'interesting,' so there should be no giveaways here. It could have been made a lot better, though, but most of the setup scenes have their payoffs (even if grossly elongated) and there isn't much filler -- though the final twist is hammered on and on, with ridiculous condescension towards the audience. Oh, and there's a bizarre nightmare-scar subplot that has no business being in the film.

It's a neatly shot film, Abbas-Mustan finally stepping into the modern day with a slick, urban look and feel. The narrative is fine, and the actors aren't too bad -- considering they haven't been asked to do much in the first place. Bobby gets a considerably meaty role, and there are a couple of moments when he genuinely works the audience. Akshaye hams it up a little, and playing a character he's too old for, doesn't seem to believe in the film. Urvashi's alright, bouncy at first and adequately alarmed when she needs to be.

In all, it's not a film to be recommended, but you probably won't mind sitting through it.

Rediff Rating: 2/5

Review

Two assistants in prison for the murder of their boss, Bobby Deol acts like schoolboys on a picnic which dilutes whatever impact the weak script manages to bring about. Vikas Kalantri and Vishal Malhotra, who find themselves behind bars, are trying to figure out what emotions to give the camera and in the bargain goof up the scene.

NAQAAB does not live up to the director duo Abbas-Mustan's forte of making thrillers. The duo who have given hits like BAZIGAAR and DARAAR fail to revive the magic of HUMRAAZ, even though the cast still has Bobby Deol and Akshaye Khanna, the two stars of the last-named flick.

So what's wrong? For starters, the script is very weak and that's where the story ends. What unfolds next is struggling actor Akshaye Khanna and private detective Raj Zutshi's handycam work that is being filmed as a reality movie. The only surprise element here is that both don't know to what extent they are being used. Also, debutante Urvashi Sharma, who is engaged to millionaire Bobby Deol, knows not what her boyfriend is upto.



Download Naqaab WallpapersAkshaye Khanna is once again impressive, but the roles he is getting are typecasting this talented actor. Bobby Deol is passable but what really spoils the plot is the inclusion of Vikas Kalantri and Vishal Malhotra whose roles are neither clearly defined, nor is their acting upto the mark. In short, it's like an eyesore every time they come on screen. Whatever little intensity is built up goes kaput when they open their mouths. Clearly, a case of bad casting.

One scene is a repeat of LIFE MEIN KABHIE KABHIE when Akshaye and Urvashi go to a five-star hotel for lunch. Aftab Shivdasani treats Koel Purie to a five-star lunch using room service and request for the food to be kept outside a door that has a 'Do Not Disturb Sign'. Akshaye does ditto.

Urvashi Sharma is confident for a newcomer. She carries off her scenes with ease and is as comfortable in a bikini as she is in a sari. All she needs to take care of is certain camera angles, which does not do justice to her looks.

Music by Pritam is what keeps the film together.

Ratings: 2/5

RATING - Ok 0k

Starring: Akshaye Khanna, Bobby Deol & Urvashi Sharma

Director: Abbas-Mustan

Bole To: The most shlocking thriller of the year!

STORY: Karan (Bobby Deol) is in love with Sophia (Urvashi Sharma - my new girlfriend). She works at Burger King but stays with Karan. They plan to get married soon. Enter Vicky (Akshaye Khanna) and our Burger King wali falls in love with him. Oh Oh. The thing is that Akshaye always has a handycam with him, so that looks a bit creepy. Apart from Raj Zutshi that is! What is he doing there? You'll have to watch the film for that. But then even if you don't, you're not missing anything.

REVIEW: Watch it for Urvashi Sharma - they show her in a bikini. Wow! I'm liking already. As for the thriller part, there's not much interesting there. The first half of the movie plays like a typical love triangle and things start unfolding in the second half albeit in an unintentinonally comical manner. Out of the cast, Akshaye is good while Bobby gets lost in the same rich-boy-long-hair role. Reality cinema.. ooops!!!

BOTTOMLINE: Thrilling? Ummm.. not really!

Cast: Bobby Deol, Akshaye Khanna, Urvashi Sharma
Director: Abbas-Mustan
Producer: Kumar Taurani, Ramesh Taurani
Genre: Suspense/Thriller
Rating: 0/5

In spite of being touted as the 'most shocking thriller of the year', (corniest tag line ever!) I would never say my expectations were sky high but they weren't below the ground level either! To be frank, Naqaab, is in fact the 'most disappointing thriller of the year so far'. The film's impact deteriorates as the time passes... from bad to worse to plainly absurd, illogical and seriously insane!

To get things straight, Abbas Mustan's 'Naqaab' is loosely based on 'Humraaz' and highly inspired from Sting's smash hit song 'I'll be watching you' and thus you get to see truckloads of cameras aimed at our petite, forever caked up 'Ameesha Patel-esque' waitress Sophia (Urvashi Sharma) who by the way loves to wear bikinis and ride her scooter to work (which supposedly shows her poverty!) The poor girl is engaged to a millionaire Karan (Bobby, repeats his 'Humraaz' act) who is way too understanding and perfect to be true! Thus our 'white-skinned' heroine (has she by ever chance used a 'white' foundation on her face!) gets bored with the Richie rich and falls for a flirt, Vicky (Akshaye, over-weight and under-performs).

But things are not what they seem like. Sophia's proximity with Vicky develops cracks in her relationship with Karan and all hell breaks loose, making one of the trio kill the other!

Who commits murder, who is the planner, who is spying on Sophia and for what reason... all your questions are answered, unfortunately none of them justify any of the events that take place earlier and thus as the suspense unfolds, it surprises you with its insanity and absurdity. In an attempt to make the climax highly unpredictable, the director goofs it up further making it even sillier and confusing!

Film review: Naqaab

Director: Abbas-Mustan
Cast: Bobby Deol, Akshaye Khanna, Urvashi Sharma
Rating: ***

On a good day the Burmawala brothers a.k.a. director duo Abbas-Mustan can be counted on to keep you engaged in their film as they hoodwink you into believing something while something totally different is going on. They play with deceit and intrigue the way other directors play with emotions and there is always another corner to be turned before you can unravel the last clue. The good news is that today is a fine day in the world of the brothers.

Not quite so though in the lives of the three main characters Karan Oberoi (Bobby Deol, a multimillionaire in Dubai), Sophia D'costa ( Urvashi Sharma, Karan's fiance) and Vicky Malhotra (Akshaye Khanna, an actor). Trouble is brewing and with everyone wearing not just one mask but several, the story has more twists and turns than a roller coaster has curves.

Abbas-Mustan keep the proceedings light even laughing at conventional filmy scenes. When one of the characters is unmasked, he exclaims that his parents had no time for him, making him a money chasing maniac with no time for the finer emotions. Just when you are about to say "et tu Abbashai-Mustanbhai" the character smirks and says that wasn't the way it is, he chases money because he loves money.

The directors set up the plot with finesse and with what is essential in a thriller… loose ends all tied up. Nowhere do they falter with characterisation (some things may look strange when happening, but it all adds up in the end). They very wisely set it all up in the shorter first half and then relentlessly surprise you with a fast-paced second half. There is a certain precision demanded by thrillers and the directors get the timing just right.

Not surprisingly, acting by all the characters is very good. While Bobby Deol (is success going to his waistline?) and Akshaye Khanna are perfectly charming, it is newcomer Urvashi Sharma who catches your eye with a surprisingly competent performance, given that it is a complex role and this is her first film.

The technical team deserves praise. Ravi Yadav's visuals are eye catching and Raju Khan's choreography deserves compliments. Music by Pritam is good too but the real heroes of this involved and complex yet hugely entertaining film are writer Shiraz Ahmed and the men in white, directors Abbas-Mustan.

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Just not feeling veil tonight

Naqaab

Cast: Bobby Deol, Akshaye Khanna, Urvashi Sharma
Direction: Abbas-Mustan
Rating: **

Note the point, she works in a burger joint, lives in a Dubai villa bigger than the Lal Quila and doesn't know whether to love the poor man or the rich man. Meanwhile flash, cuts, zips, zaps, toinks and boinks hint at some eerie events from the past and future. Everyone is Dubai seems to be either unreal or surreal. Eesh.

In fact, throughout Abbas-Mustan's Naqaab, you even keep wondering if you've turned into a Daliesque tangdi kabaab? With possibly the most insane whodunwhat made in world cinema, the duo even pay their belated homage to Satyajit Ray's Pather Panchali. Being watched on DVD, the classic prompts someone to exclaim, "Arre wah, Ray saab made the real so very real."

Really, this happens out here. Like it or not, Abbas-Mustan have lost the plot. Result: the right royal headache of the year!

Come on, the directors and their story-screenplay writer Shiraz Ahmed, have merely lifted a Hollywood turnip called Dot the I, which is about as adaptable to our milieu as an igloo is to the tropiocs.

Strange sights-'n'-sounds abound. Collapse! Everyone even trots off to the Cannes film festival to win the Palme D'Or (can't reveal why but merde!), an Egyptian dancer organises mating sessions at a cabaret palace, and a beach dance jigaloo is performed by Akshaye Khanna as if were trying to outclass Himesh Reshammiya's surroor. Mr Khanna is a competent actor but would he please stop going off his limborockers?

Of the performances, Khanna despite his odd wardrobe, has his better-than-the-script moments. Bobby Deol – except for a solitary solo piece of dialogue – is criminally wasted. And imagine, that too by Abbas-Mustan! As puzzling as Sudoku, he goes around video-graphing Urvashi Sharma (new mystery-history-geography girl, it seems) when she's sipping champagne. Bubbly boo. He thinks she's chilli capsicum, she thinks he's a kobe sizzler. Trouble bubbles. Urvashiji is already engaged to the richest dude in the world, aka Bobby Deol, who sits with a gang of executives at a table discussing business over a bowl of apples and lemons. Going bananas or what?

Anyway Urvashi runs out of her church wedding to the Fruit Dude, scaring the daylights out of a couple of little girls who had just told the bride, "You look so beautiful." Debatable. But hang on, there are miles to go before you sleep (at home that is).

Next: Akshaye, Bobby and Urvi talk as expertly as Ashok Mehta and Santosh Sivan about the rapid strides in video technology. So boring. Theatre actor Ganesh Yadav shows up as a cop to look menacingly at a couple of irritating nerds who hang all around the place like Chinese lanterns. Yet nothing is more comical than Akshaye Khanna (given yards and yards of footage) in the wardrobe of either a schoolboy's or of Jeetendra's.

To be sure, the editing chops by Hussain Burmawallah are snazzy but why an abruptly short first- half followed by lumbering post-intermission antics? Pritam's music score is a snoozer.

Of the performances, Khanna despite his odd wardrobe, has his better-than-the-script moments. Bobby Deol – except for a solitary solo piece of dialogue – is criminally wasted. And imagine, that too by Abbas-Mustan! As for Urvashi Sharma, well, she is obviously dubbed. And despite the camera going ga-ga-ga over her, she doesn't display any USP.

Serious advice: Naqaab is best left unveiled.

Subhash K Jha unmasks Naqaab

By Subhash K. Jha, July 14, 2007 - 09:32 IST

Come, bask in the mask. If you want to see a smile-worthy sangam of tradition and trendiness, then try Naqaab.

On the one hand there's the ultra-hip super-cool Kiss- Miss Sophia (newcomer Urvashi) who lives in with Richie- Rich Bobby Deol and romances the Devil-may-Care Dude (Akshaye Khanna) and even runs away from her church wedding(ala Julia Roberts in The Runaway Bride).

But get this contradiction. On the other hand when the clandestine couple Khanna and Urvashi break into a mela song, Abbas-Mustan (bless their suspenseful soul) do a quick dissolve with the camera to indicate to the audience that the song is a dream sequence. The problem with our cinema is, it takes on the mantle of the new millennium without knowing where it is going.

In Naqaab, the female protagonist goes from being a flaky burger waitress in a Dubai restaurant to an unsuspecting actress in a reality film to a vengeful Mata Hari…to God knows what else.

Ooof… this time Abbas-Mustan tire us out. Gone is the well thought-out paciness of Baazigar, Soldier , Humraaz and Aitraaz. There're many wheels within wheels simulating a sense of well-oiled movement in the plot.

But check the editing patterns (Hussain Burmawala). The narrative is just not getting anywhere. Yup, this time Abbas-Mustan have lost the plot.

Some early scenes when Akshaye, playing a struggling actor, and Urvashi, playing a grappling go-getter, bond with the feast have a punchy perkiness. One episode of masti between the couple in a posh hotel (where Khanna treats Urvashi to a banquet by ordering for room service from a foyer phone) seems to have been ripped off from Vikram Bhatt's Life Mein Kabhi Kabhie. But what the heck! There's a mood of anything-goes in the first –half that doesn't quite get into the required tempo.

Abbas-Mustan's creative output has lately been on the decline. Naqaab makes you feel they are now lunging for effect. Even when the earlier films were Hollywood rip offs they conveyed a sense of streamlined momentum.

Everything in Naqaab is calculated for an effect. And that goes for the characters too. They are constantly trying to be what they are not, and therefore perpetually tying themselves up in knots.

Most of this film about a whacked-out filmmaker shooting a secret improvised reality-film with characters who are actors rather than characters is shot on elaborately done-up sets representing cool clubs and sweaty bedrooms. They add to the feeling of claustrophobia that assails us from all sides.

Akshaye Khanna and Bobby Deol struggle to instill a sense of logic to the wacky plot. Khanna succeeds to some extent. Bobby, veering from devoted passion to demented creativity, fails.

The new girl Urvashi seems to have some fun playing the feisty miss who's engaged to a placid tycoon and is swept off her feet by a wicked stranger. Mills & Boon? That's old world.

Kick off your shoes and enter Abbas-Mustan's web of virtual reality. Here, anything can happen. Alas, nothing does. At least nothing to sink our teeth into.

Ashok Nayak

Director Abbas Mustan have churned out thrillers

like 'Baazigar', 'Ajnabee', 'Humraaz', 'Aitraaz' to name a few.They are the masters when it comes to thrillers. 'Naqaab' is another romantic thriller from the stable of this director duo. After 'Humraaz', Abbas Mustan, Akshay Khanna and Bobby Deol team up again, also introducing model Urvashi Sharma as an actress.

'Naqaab' is not just another love triangle, but a twisted thrilling love story. The movie does have a lot of suspense in it but does the movie actually stand up to being the most thrilling love story of the year? Well, not quite.

This is how the story goes...
Karan (Bobby Deol) is a multi millionaire who falls in love with a middle-class gorgeous girl Sophie (Urvashi Sharma). Sophie, a girl of self-will, in spite of being the love of Karan's life works at a burger house to earn her living. Being with Karan, Sophie had love, happiness, riches and glamour that she never dreamt of possessing. Here we are introduced to our second hero Vicky (Akshaye Khanna). Vicky a middle-class charming young man aims to become an actor, but fails and is out of work. He meets Sophie at a beach resort. A dance at the resort sweeps both of them off their feet . Despite being engaged, Sophie starts falling in love with Vicky because of his witty and winning talks and actions. Karan is unaware of the relationship that is blossoming between Sophie and Vikram.

Well this sounds like a usual love triangle, a girl trapped between two men. But that's not all what 'Naqaab' has in store for us. Besides all this, there is a fourth person who is monitoring all the three characters. There is something that creates turmoil in the lives of the three. Slowly the story is unmasked and the true faces come to limelight. Is Vicky the only reason behind the split of Karan and Sophie? Is he the only baddie? Is Karan the right man for Sophie? Are the characters the same as they appear? 'Naqaab' conceals different intentions.

The concept chosen by Abbas-Mustan for Naqaab is excellent but the execution fails. The story is dealt in an unusual way, something unique but feeble. The first half of the movie has almost nothing unique or thrilling, most of the sequences are completely predictable. The movie provokes no emotions. The beep that is heard every time the fourth person shoots the activities of these characters is annoying. One could also easily guess the man behind all the suspense, but the intention remained unknown. The ending was different but not convincing. The repeated twists in reaching the ultimate climax has probably never been employed in any Bollywood film before. The approach is interesting but the result not convincing. The setting of the award ceremony evidently appeared unrealistic. And when did human blood become thinner like water and the color so light?

Cinematography is excellent. The locales of Dubai have been captured well. Music was satisfactory.

Bobby Deol looks the character he's been asked to portray but he is not spontaneous. Overall Bobby is good but his expression seems forced. Akshay Khanna's acting is first-rate. The chemistry that he shares with Urvashi is electric. Urvashi is confident throughout. She looks gorgeous and her performance is exceptional for a debutant. She still needs to work on her dialogue delivery. Some homework will increase her chances of pushing towards the top league.

Raj Zutshi is wasted. Vikas Kalantri and Vishal Malhotra are alright.

Overall, 'Naqaab' breaks the promise of being the most thrilling love story of the year. With an interesting and unique theme, the movie fails to be captivating.