Dr. Sailesh Kolanu clearly intends for HIT to turn into a franchise, and it's made clear from the get-go when he seems to be in no hurry to reveal anything much about his characters. Crime dramas are a genre that are hard to pull off and to the director's credit, he manages to do it well with minimal drawbacks. What's amazing is how the viewer is pushed into the world Vikram inhabits from the word go, especially when it's one that's suffocating and filled with so much pain.
A girl goes missing at Outer Ring Road and her parents are worried out of their mind. The last person to see her is a cop (Murli Sharma) who had left her at the place she was last seen after she assures him that help is arriving. Another cop, Vikram (Vishwak Sen), is on a much-needed leave, trying to cope with the pain in his life, when he receives a distressing call. How Vikram embroils himself in the case of the missing girl, and what does it have to do with the call he received makes up the tale.
Vikram works for the HIT department against his therapist and girlfriend Neha's (Ruhani Sharma) wishes. Due to the nature of his job, he's prone to massive panic attacks that cause him to black out sometimes, be paranoid that his suspects will escape his grasp whenever they're out of his view and fire in any shape, view or form, seems to be a massive trigger. It's clear he's in pain due to a past trauma, which is why his shabby appearance and short-temperedness is tolerated even by his superiors. And while he has a keen sense of smell and deduction skills that make him good at his job, the question remains throughout the film, if his shortcomings will ever let him solve cases in peace.
The director does a good job of letting us know enough about Vikram's trauma to care and stay invested throughout the film. His love for Neha and the pain deeply embedded in him are shown in bits and pieces, via flashes of his memories. And this narrative is a particularly bold choice, seeing as how it's not something that might sit well with all viewers. But the film takes its own sweet time delivering the conclusion and while it's laudable that it is not something you can guess, the way the climax is hurried through doesn't really work. But the less said about the plot the better, it's something that needs to be watched on-screen.
Apart from director Sailesh, Vivek Sagar, S Mani Kandan and Garry BH should be lauded for doing a stupendous job with setting up the environment Vikram inhabits. The music, cinematography and editing stay true to the genre; bringing through the pain, suffocation and desperation through the sound and visuals. The detailing is spectacular, so are the way some scenes are shot, with subtlety without being too on-the-nose. The film also breaks stereotypes in the most subtle of ways.
Vishwak Sen's performance on the other hand doesn't always leave the intended impact. His dialogue delivery, especially ones with scenes featuring Ruhani, seems off. But he nails the scenes where he's being sarcastic and funny -when he's calling out a professor for moral policing, in particular. His acting too wavers, seeming off in certain scenes, while he just nails it in other ones, and there just seems to be no in-between when it comes to it. Ruhani Sharma is surprisingly plain okay in the few scenes she has, while Hari Teja shines. Murli Sharma does well with what he's offered.
HIT is definitely not a film that will keep you on the edge of the seat, but it keeps you engaged enough to know more. With a tighter narrative, better direction and performances, this truly could've been something else. But that's not to say, that the film doesn't work, because it does, especially with the massive cliff-hanger at the end promising a sequel worth watching.
