Film: Ittefaq (Thriller)
Cast: Akshaye Khanna, Sidharth Malhotra, Sonakshi Sinha
Director: Abhay Chopra
Duration: 1 hour, 43 minutes
Language: Hindi (U/A)
Story:
While on a visit to Mumbai to launch his new book, a UK-based author, Vikram Sethi (Sidharth) lands himself in a soup. His wife Katherine and her lawyer Shekhar are both found dead and the killer is on the run.
Vikram holes up with Maya (Sonakshi) for a few hours on the night of his wife's murder but he still doesn't have a foolproof alibi, so he is arrested by the investigating officer Dev (Akshaye). Does he get a chance to prove his innocence or does he languish in prison?
Review:
Ittefaq has its moments. And all the good ones belong to Akshaye Khanna, who is in top form. Take him out of this film and you may as well snooze.
This contemporary version -- inspired by Yash Chopra's cult classic of the same name made in the year 1969 -- sticks to the tropes used in the older version. But while the earlier whodunit still holds because of Yash's mastery over story-telling, this one, directed by his grand-nephew, Abhay Chopra, feels shaky, despite having good production values and a glossy colour canvas.
Coming back to the plot, you have three main players in this murder mystery whose paths keep crossing one another's. There is the author, Vikram, a housewife, Maya (Sonakshi) and the cop, Dev who is asked to solve the case in just three days.
There are two murders, two versions, two suspects, and things are played out from Maya's perspective and then from Vikram's. The cops, at least, the ones shown in the film are caricatures (the Mumbai Police should take serious note of this). The only one with a nose for a mystery is Dev. He is the one who has got all the witty lines and of course he's the only one who can see what a whole department very easily misses.
Frankly, this rankles. One is aware that people often get away with murder, but the way this thriller unfolds is hardly exciting. Instead of the having the edge-of-the-seat quality that brain twisters ideally should, this one is a tiresome cat-and-mouse chase.
Of course, if you're a die-hard fan of murder mysteries this one may hold some magic for you.
Rating: *** (3 Stars)
