REVIEW

Unpredictable and thrilling

 By Troy Ribeiro 

 FILM: Talaash

CAST: Aamir Khan, Rani Mukerji, Kareena Kapoor, Nawazuddin Siddiqui

DIRECTION: Reema Kagti

Aamir Khan never ceases to surprise viewers. In Talaash, he does so quite literally. The succinctly written, complex screenplay, smoothly interlays between the police investigation and personal emotional turmoil of the characters make Talaash a nail-biting thriller.

The plot about a police officer Surjan Singh Shekhawat (Aamir Khan) investigating a high-profile case of film star Armaan Kapoor’s accidental death keeps you riveted. Alongside the main plot, one gathers that Shekhawat and his wife Roshni (Rani Mukerji), have lost their eight-year- old son Karan in a freak accident in a lake, for which Shekhawat blames himself and lives in guilt.

His investigations constantly lead him to Kareena Kapoor, a prostitute with a good heart, who acts as the ace informer for Shekhawat. Kareena as Rosy, has shades of her earlier Chameli, although she makes a conscious effort to be different. She is effective and convincing, touching your heart with the innate goodness of her character, in spite of her circumstances.

The mystery shrouding the case, unravels gradually in a carefully written tight script, with no loopholes. The film is entirely unpredictable, not conforming to the usual approach to thrillers in Bollywood. This one is clearly different and keeps you guessing till the very end.

The climax brings you to the edge of your seat, but leaves you satiated. As the case unfolds, you get your answers from the characters on celluloid. But clearly, Reema Kagti and Zoya Akhtar, the scriptwriter duo, give you much more than just that. They take you through a complete self-exploratory journey and bring you back replete with answers. Farhan Akhtar’s dialogues in colloquial parlance are witty and unleash several underlying messages.

Ram Sampath gives an apt background score, in keeping with the flavour of the film and if anything, only enhances the viewer’s experience. Music in the film otherwise is nothing to write home about, but you’re definitely not complaining. The plot and performances leave no room for frivolities.

Rani Mukerji in her de-glam avatar, is true to her character as the distraught mother. Nawazuddin Siddiqui as Taimur, the lame Man Friday in the brothel doing odd jobs, excels in a superbly written role. Realistic performances and get ups of all the characters, add to the ingenuity of the plot.

The cinematography, though simple, captures the essence of Mumbai. The locales of the city are wonderfully depicted, making those, a character in the film, rather than a mere backdrop.

Devoid of the usual Bollywood masala and gimmicks, this one is a pure treat. Aamir Khan’s fans apart, Talaash has the power to grip all cine-goers.- IANS

A city of spies

 By Tish Wells

FILM: Spies of Warsaw (TV mini-series)

CAST: David Tennant,Janet Montgomery, Marcin Dorocinski 

DIRECTION: Coky Giedroyc

In BBC America’s adaptation of Alan Furst’s 2008 novel Spies of Warsaw, David Tennant plays Colonel Jean-Francois Mercier, a French military attache attached to the embassy in Warsaw during the run-up to World War II.

An intelligence officer, Mercier runs agents into Germany for information about the Nazis. A World War I veteran, he sees another war on the horizon. His superiors in Paris don’t agree.

Few are who they seem to be in Warsaw. The city is filled with secret agents from across Europe - both White and Soviet Russians, Germans, Brits, Poles and others.

Some of the spies are even in danger from their own governments. As Viktor Rozen (Alan Corduner), a Bolshevik working for the Soviet Union who’s threatened by Stalin’s purges, confesses to Mercier, “You work half your life - 25 years of secrets and obedience - and still you’re afraid of the knock on the door at midnight.”

Mercier is aided by his Polish intelligence counterpart, Antoni Pakulski (Marcin Dorocinski), whom he’s known for almost 20 years from when they fought the Russians on the Polish border.

A widower, Mercier falls in love with a Polish woman, Anna Skarbek (Janet Montgomery), a lawyer for the League of Nations, living with an exiled Russian journalist.

An excellent actor, Tennant is best known for playing the 10th Doctor Who.

If you know about the real-life “special friendship” between Poland and France, it is easier to understand the ending. It’s very clear in Furst’s novel but less so in the film.

Lovely tidbits are strewn throughout. For example, when a member of British Intelligence in Paris refers to a man as “Philby”, some might remember that, in real life, Harold “Kim” Philby was an English traitor who worked for the Soviets for decades, defecting to Moscow in 1963.- MCT

Stunning visuals and gripping fight scenes

 FILM: The Four

CAST: Deng Chao, Liu Yifei, Collin Chou, Ronald Cheng

DIRECTION: Gordon Chan and Janet Chun

The Four is the first big screen adaptation of Wan Rayan’s famous novels about four detectives in ancient China. It has previously been adapted into numerous television series in Hong Kong. In all adaptations and interpretations, the nicknames of the Four remained the same - Heartless, Iron Fist, Hunter and Cold Blood. They have dedicated their special skills to the service of Master Zhuge in solving crimes and apprehending powerful criminals.

The movie is set during the reign of Chinese Emperor Huizong in the late Northern Song Dynasty.

A government department known as the “Six Panels” customarily has full jurisdiction over all criminal investigations in the imperial capital. The Six Panels operates in a highly disciplined manner. Their chief, Commandant Liu, ranks the investigators by clearance rate and dangles the prospect of an operator to be named one of the “Great Four”.

The story begins with the country experiencing a significant increase in circulation of counterfeit coin currency, leading to growing unrest and instability. Official investigators from the Six Panels, acting on a tip-off, rush in full force to apprehend a suspect who is trying to sell a coin die stolen from the imperial mint, only to find the suspect and the evidence being taken into custody by agents of a hitherto unknown secret service, known as the Divine Constabulary, which is commissioned by the Emperor himself.

This arouses jealousy in Commandant Liu, who openly fires Cold Blood, one of his best men, and then secretly ordering him to infiltrate the Divine Constabulary to find a way to bring down the rival agency. Liu is unaware that his own establishment has been infiltrated by double-agents despatched by the mastermind behind the counterfeit currency.

Despite being aware of Cold Blood’s true mission, the chief of the Divine Constabulary seeks out Cold Blood and welcomes him into the agency. Once inside, Cold Blood is surprised to observe that the Divine Constabulary staff live and work together more like a family than a highly formalised professional security force.

Despite their small size, the Constabulary works efficiently and effectively through a few individuals with specialised skills which are useful in solving crimes. Cold Blood finds his loyalties divided, and things are made harder as he becomes tangled in a love triangle with two girls, one from each agency.

The film has stunning visuals, gripping fight scenes, and … characters miraculously attaining the ability to fly across rooftops.

The Four manages to be charming and is watchable.- WS

(DVDs courtesy:

Saqr Entertainment Stores, Doha)