'7 Hours To Go' review: Style overpowers substance in this thriller

Film: 7 Hours To Go
Cast: Shiv Pandit, Sandeepa Dhar, Natasa Stankovic and Varun Badola
Director: Saurabh Varma

What it's about

The genre of thrillers hasn’t yet been exploited to its full potential in the Hindi film industry. So when something promising comes along, it makes one look forward to it. Director Saurabh Varma made an impressive debut with Mickey Virus, so one was keen to watch his next offering. 7 Hours To Go is about Arjun Ranavat (Shiv) who takes seven people as hostages inside the Bombay High Court. His every action keeps baffling the police team, led by Shukla ji (Sandeepa) and ACP Dhadke (Varun). The cops have just 7 hours to meet his demands. As time ticks by, new motives and conspiracies come to the fore. The twists and turns lead to a startling revelation in the last minutes of the film.

What's Hot

There’s something rather clever about the way Saurabh Varma handles his films. Like Mickey Virus, this one too is rather modest in terms of budget. But Varma has this uncanny knack of not showing any kind of budgetary constraints on screen. 7 Hours To Go is stylish, slick and quite edgy in terms of its treatment. The thrill elements leave an impact. Varma also deserves a pat on the back for his placement of songs in the film. The music is good but what’s commendable is the way he has used the music— not once does it hamper the narrative. The stunt sequences have been shot well, particularly the introduction scene of Sandeepa Dhar. The actress is sincere in her performance even though she doesn’t fit the character. Varun Badola plays his role interestingly— he’s the guy with the punch lines. It’s up to Shiv Pandit to carry the film on his shoulders and he does a fine job. There’s a certain honesty that the actor brings on screen that’s hard to miss, a talent to watch out for.

What's Not

In a thriller like this, the progression in the script needs to be very effective to keep the viewer engaged. Varma loses control of that in the film’s second half. It’s almost like he didn’t know how to fill the gaps. So he adds scenes and characters that add nothing to the drama and instead fail to hold your interest. For example, too much of screen time is given to the character of hitman Amol Palekar (played by Ketan Singh) when the film would’ve worked fine even without him. The film’s equilibrium is shaken when Varma shifts gears suddenly— just when you are appreciating the director’s detailing, bullets from cars come flying out on the roads of Mumbai in typical filmy style. And what was with making both his lead actresses undress casually in front of their colleagues? The problem with 7 Hours To Go is that style overpowers substance at all times.

What to do

Watch it if you’re a die-hard thriller fan.  

Rating:  **