Ittefaq
Cast: Sidharth Malhotra, Sonakshi Sinha, Akshaye Khanna
Director: Abhay Chopra
Rating: 3/5
Vikram Sethi (Sidharth Malhotra) is a London-based mystery writer. His last book hasn't done well and thus he is under pressure to deliver a bestseller. He is in India to launch his next, but circumstances take a strange turn when his wife's dead body is discovered in a Mumbai hotel.
It's natural for the police, led by Dev Verma (Akshaye Khanna), to arrest Vikram after he flees the scene of crime. He is caught within hours, but the narrative has completely changed now.
For, Vikram is nabbed again at the house of a total stranger Maya Sinha (Sonakshi Sinha), and her husband's dead body is there too.
The police are also in a fix now that they have two bodies, two prime suspects and a few secondary suspects.
Remake of 1969 hit of the same name, this one uses Mumbai's rain-prone environment as a suitable backdrop for the murder mystery. The hazy weather and closed spaces spread a canvas and bracket the audience's view. It's all linear, so nobody needs to have a prior understanding of the relationships between the major characters.
A large part of the action takes place on staircases and inside dimly lit apartments. You know how claustrophobic city landscapes can become at times. Weird things happen right in the middle of megacities and there are no witnesses despite being surrounded by a sea of people. Remember the news of dead bodies found in locked apartments weeks later?
Debutante director Abhay Chopra plays with our minds when he doesn't introduce many side stories. This puts blinkers on our thoughts and makes us focus on the murders.
Love, seduction, betrayal, every trick has been used by Chopra. Akshaye Khanna's cop is under pressure to solve the case within stipulated time. It seems like an open-and-shut case at times, but what if the murders are not connected, or connected? What if all this is actually by chance (Ittefaq)?
It's not the butler did it' kind of crime as the director gives ample hints of a logical conclusion throughout the 100-minute film. Anything less than a sensible conclusion would have been a shortchanging the audience. thank heavens it doesn't happen.
However, one major problem with Ittefaq is the lack of intensity. Sonakshi Sinha and Sidharth Malhotra take a lot of time in adjusting to their surroundings. That reminds me of Ram Gopal Varma's terrific psychological drama Kaun (1999) which worked mostly because of its lead cast. Ittefaq must have looked much better on paper.
Though Sinha struggles towards the end as well, Malhotra begins to hit the right notes after a while and that immensely contributes to the film.
You know how investigative officers are used as storytellers in such films. Here, Khanna plays that role with ease, finesse and poise. He binds the story together.
There are no songs to take your attention away and camera keeps hovering over the same selected locations. The idea is to give us a rear window' from where you can see the action, but can't exactly understand its true nature.
It's not that plot is absolutely water-tight, or you will be totally blown away by the twists, but Abhay Chopra has put his resources to a good use. Ittefaq tries its best to create intrigue and doesn't give the audience much time to think over the events twice. That's its biggest achievement.
Ittefaq is a decent enough crime-story to keep you hooked and guessing.
was such a refreshing change! Loved it @sonakshisinha @S1dharthM Abhay @karanjohar :)
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