Movie Talaash: The Search Suspense That Finally Disappoints!

By -


As his forte Aamir Khan has made his blockbuster appearance after a gap of almost three years since the release of the super movie 3 Idiots in 2009, and his magic worked for the much awaited Talaash; The Answer Lies Within that released on November 30, 2012 all over. Talaash has grossed the sixth highest Box Office earnings of the year over the release weekend and is confirmed a hit. Aamir Khan, this time coming with a big mustache, plays a cop and gives a powerhouse performance for his loving admirers yet again.

If you enjoy an absorbing suspense buildup to the extent that it makes the end irrelevant then Talaash is the right movie for you. We had said a similar thing in the review of Kahaani, but Kahaani was almost flawless and the intended power of the climax twist did not get diluted due to the ‘technicality’ whereas Talaash is not flawless and it ultimately does not stay loyal to the genre of suspense. The Talaash climax is kind of a state-of-the-mind affair—you like it or not like it as per you mental setup. Therefore, for some of you the climax would be mind shattering while for others it would be plain disappointing. And, if you are smart enough your disappointment starts at least half an hour before the end and your disappointment climaxes with the move climax. Maybe because of this the reviews of the move have been mixed. 

The values are stupendous though in this superbly crafted movie. It is almost a film noir or neo-noir with its artistically maintained black mood and a psychological tinge. Photography is brilliant creating the atmosphere of suspense and confusion with the visual mix of light and shade and darkness, lilting music rendering full support to the atmosphere and deft editing giving the cutting edge. The slimy lanes and inhabitants of Mumbai’s dark underbelly have been captured masterfully.

You do get intrigued from the very start when a car suddenly makes twists and turns in an empty Mumbai road in the dead of the night, hits the pavement and jumps into the sea. Police inspector Surjan Singh Shekhawat (Aamir Khan) takes up the investigation and discovers that the victim of the mysterious car accident is a movie superstar. 

Following various leads Shekhawat and his aide Kulkarni (Raj Kumar Yadav) keep visiting the Mumbai red-light district—the pimps, the madams in charge and the prostitutes. But investigations get delayed as the subplot involving Shekhawat’s personal life catches up. 
Aamir and Rani
He and his wife Roshni (Rani Mukherjee) both suffer from depression since their only child got drowned in a freak motor boat accident recently. But while Roshni regularly visits a psychiatrist her husband who cannot sleep at night and considers himself solely responsible for the accident seems entirely reluctant to help her and in fact seems to be the real cause of her depression. A neighborhood lady adds an occult angle to their already miserable existence.

Kareena Kapoor
As for the main plot Shekhawat hardly makes any more progress despite capturing and interrogating Tehmur (Nawazudding Siddiqui), the limp errand boy of the pimps and a crucial link to the case. However, Shekhawat’s sudden meeting with the beautifully mysterious hooker Rosy (Kareena Kapoor) and the desperate antics of Tehmur keep you intrigued and guessing. Just when things look most complicated and you gear up for a treat the movie makes the genre-shift and your disappointment starts. Till the climax and much beyond that you only engage yourself finding what answers lie within or without. 

Nawazuddin Siddiqui
Characterization in the movie is left far behind the desirable mark. Even Aamir Khan in the protagonist’s role does not find a fully defined character to fit into while Rani Mukherjee in the wife’s role is almost wasted. Husband-wife relationship is portrayed most pathetically. The only two fully defined characters of Talaash are that of Raj Kumar Yadav and Nawazuddin Siddiqui. Of the two Siddiqui steals the show with another effortless and superlative performance as the limp errand boy who finally wants to capitalize on a new-found opportunity. However, on the overall plus side several scenes of the movie including the climax do touch the deep chords in your heart and move you.

Finally it is a tremendous opportunity lost for Director-writer Reema Kagti. Talaash had all the ingredients and the mood to be a suspense classic. Unfortunately it could not turn out to be. Talaash is straightaway two stars less than Kahaani.
Reactions:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Pandemic Response: Taking Precaution Is Not Out Of Fear Or Negativity!

By -
Image
  Apart from the still fluctuating or increasing number of people testing COVID-19 positive across the Indian states, primarily Delhi and a few others, there has also been a growth of a sense of ‘false positivity’ in the response of the people to the pandemic. We had seen in an earlier piece about that surge of defiance in citizens to celebrate Diwali the usual normal way. This ‘surge of defiance’ is somewhat related to what we have said about that sense of false positivity. After more than eight months of paying subservience to the sticky virus people now seem to say and act accordingly, ‘No, enough is enough! No more slavery to the goddamned virus! We’ll do now whatever we feel like. We are least likely to be infected as we are positive about it, and if we do get infected, let it be!’   If fellow citizens around them insist on observing the norms like at least wearing masks they rule it out scornfully, ‘Don’t be scared, guys! Be positive, nothing will happen to you!’ If an elder
Read more

Bihar Maha Bitterness: Why Board And Then Blame The Sinking Ship!

By -
Image
  After riding on a palpable anti-incumbency wave and the predictions of clear victory by all of the exit polls the ultimate narrow defeat of the Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD)-led Mahagathbandhan (Grand Alliance) in the Bihar Assembly Elections-2020 is bound to cause huge disappointment and bitterness. Unable to accept defeat the leaders of the RJD first started attacking the Election Commission on a variety of alleged anomalies in counting, and then picked out the main alliance partner, the Indian National Congress (INC), for letting them down. A prominent RJD leader attacked Rahul Gandhi and his sister Priyanka Gandhi for their alleged callousness towards the election. The leader further alleged that they did not come for the election campaigns attending a very few rallies, but were only interested in having picnics. He also questioned the internal management of the INC and its lack of introspection.   Having said that, we must examine the underlying factors. The RJD under the leade
Read more

A Few Concerns As India Cross 9 Million COVID-19 Cases!

By -
Image
India has crossed the 9 million COVID-19 cases mark today, taking 22 days for the last million increase as against 19 days for the previous millon cases. The recovery rate has almost reached 94% with active cases falling below 4,50,000. A few days back daily new cases fell below the 30,000 mark that was consistent only for two days, and new additions had again picked up. In the last twenty four hours total number of new cases was at 45, 882. Total deaths that started falling below 500 also picked up, and for the last twenty four hours 584 Coronavirus patients had died which is a bit worrying despite the fatality rate consistently at around 1.5%.  The increased numbers of daily new cases and daily deaths are largely due to record spikes in Delhi and high-volume numbers in Kerala, Maharashtra, West Bengal, Rajasthan, Chhattisgarh, Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Karnataka, Telangana and Haryana. In states like Gujarat, Manipur and a few others the renewed spikes have raised a concern. In
Read more

India Vs Australia: Cricket New Normal, COVID Stress, Pink Ball And Expectations!

By -
Image
  Photo: rediff.com India started their tour of Australia in 2018-19 too from November 2018 to January 2019, and created history by becoming first Asian cricket team to beat Australia in a Test Series in Australia. They also became only the second team of the world to beat Australia in Australia in both the formats of ODI and Test. The first test of that series too started in Adelaide in December and in that cracker of a match India won by 31 runs, one of their slenderest of victory margins. Australia won the second test in Perth by 146 runs, and India sealed the series 2-1 by winning the third test in Melbourne by 137 runs with the last match ending in a draw in Sydney. Then they went on to win the ODI Series 2-1 too. Under Australia’s split captaincy regime for different formats Aussie wicket keeper Tim Paine was the captain in the Test series and Aaron Finch captained the Aussies in the ODI and T201 formats, and they met Virat Kohli as the all-format Indian skipper. The rivalry rema
Read more

Self-Respect And Respecting Others!

By -
Image
We more or less understand the meaning of self-respect which is to keep or show respect to one’s own self. A self-respecting person is one who tends to justify his/her deeds or actions or reactions in the intrinsic belief that s/he cannot possibly do or say wrong things, and if s/he gets insulted by others in the process or is asked to do or comply with ridiculous tasks s/he gets mortally offended. Losing one’s self-respect is often the end of the world for a truly self-respecting individual. This, of course, differs from individual to individual depending on the individual’s perception about it and whether his/her sense of self-respect is genuine or cultivated or vain. To this point we will come at a later context. First, we must try our best to explain the syndrome of self-respect or self-esteem further.   How does self-respect come about? We have to be clear about one thing that we cannot possibly create self-respect on our own; supposing we can the questions are at which stage
Read more

Actor-Legend Soumitra Chatterjee Passes Away In Kolkata!

By -
Image
  Legendary actor Soumitra Chatterjee passed away in a Kolkata hospital today after fighting with COVID-19 for nearly one and half months. He was tested positive on the 6 th of October 2020 and was promptly admitted to a hospital considering his age and vulnerability. The actor was on and off ventilator support as he developed a range of other infections. Great hopes were generated when he tested negative on October 14; but his COVID-related complications dashed all expectations of his final recovery. He continued to be on life support, and despite the best efforts of the team of doctors we have lost one of the greatest actors of Indian Cinema. He was 85, but still had enough ammunition to surge ahead with his creative pursuits, encompassing a saga of over five decades in Bangla movies. But for the deadly pandemic virus!   Soumitra Chattopadhyay has been one of my all-time favorite actors of world cinema, and living in Assam, I began to realize his immense contribution to cinema o
Read more

"Bura Mat Suno...Bura Mat Dekho..."!

By -
Image
Long back Mahatma Gandhi advised us ‘Do not listen to bad, do not see bad and do not speak bad’ ( "Bura Mat Suno..Bura Mat Dekho...Bura Mat Kaho" !). Now in modern hyper competitive times we are helpless about the first two don’ts. And persistent exposure to the first two makes us lose the third too! We cannot help but listen to or watch an endless stream of ‘bad’—all around us from home to the streets, in the newspapers and news channels, in the television serials and in the movies and at every act we have to do like walking praying jogging or driving—everyday and every step of our existence. Such continuous barrage of ‘bad’ is fast making us speak and utter a lot of ‘bad’ too. We are becoming doubtful and suspicious of everything around us and we are learning to blurt it out freely and openly. The main ‘bad’ drive comes from politics. We are hounded constantly by all sorts of stories being hammered into us forcing us to form our opinions or go on changing t
Read more

The Decibels Of Desperation!

By -
Image
  Tiken has developed a gut feeling. That he is not going to win this time. He tries hard to get rid of that miserable feeling, but is not successful. He understands his other gut feeling. That he cannot afford to lose this. He has everything to lose if he does. In fact, Tiken had sounded a threat even before the event that he would leave the place in case the inhabitants stopped supporting him, and they would miss his prestigious presence sorely. Then, he muses, did he actually know about the wave for change in the air? Perhaps yes, perhaps not.   It is a huge housing society that Tiken lives in, with five wings from ‘A’ to ‘E’. Each wing has hundred flats most of which are occupied, either by owners or tenants. As the General Secretary of the Society’s Residents’ Association he has been enjoying immense powers in taking decisions or initiatives or desirable actions. He was elected in the last elections by a very narrow margin, but most of the members in his executive committee wo
Read more

The COVID-19 Vaccine Countdown!

By -
Image
  Experts say that while the novel Coronavirus that hit planet earth in December 2019 created an unprecedented crisis for humankind the response to it by researchers, medical scientists and pharmaceutical companies in trying to discover a vaccine is also unprecedented. Under normal circumstances the process of discovering, testing and producing a vaccine takes from 5 years to 10 years thanks to the high failure rate associated with it. Therefore, the probability of having an effective COVID-19 vaccine within a year of the pandemic invasion is incredible news that speaks volumes about the non-stop efforts, dedication, round-the-clock supervision, utilization of special funds and global coordination put into it. As per the World Health Organization, at present there are nearly 200 vaccine candidates out of which 44 are in various stages of human clinical trials, and a few are about to be approved by the regulators. This would indeed be another crowing glory of the human quest should a sa
Read more

Pandemic Response: Restive Public, Diwali Violations And Vaccine Solace!

By -
Image
  As the loud bursts of firecrackers reach a crescendo the discerning law-abiding citizens, particularly the elderly ones sticking to the stay-at-home doctrine, wonder loudly too, ‘What the heck is happening, and how?’ Yes, valid question: the state, one of many Indian states, imposed a complete ban on firecrackers and fireworks from 9 th November to 30 th November 2020 asking citizens to observe Diwali, the biggest festival of India, by lighting earthen or electric lamps only, in view of the pandemic that can accelerate again due to increased pollution. In the nation’s capital Delhi, apart from the complete government-ban the National Green Tribunal also totally prohibited use or sale of firecrackers making these punishable offences. Yet, on the Diwali night of 14 th November 2020 all caution ended up in smoke as most of the city folks celebrated with fireworks in brazen defiance. How they managed to get the abundant supplies of crackers and accessories is a question that is better
Read more