Ittefaq

Not your conventional Bollywood movie, no song and dance sequences means a more streamlined and effective runtime. This is a tense thriller. Siddhartha Malhotras character is on the run suspected of his wife's murder and gets caught over the body of another unrelated fellow. The police arrest him straight away thinking it's a straight forward case but all is not what it seems. The first thing that hits you is the witty dialogue between the police officers, realistic and identifiable. The actions of the officers involved together with the realistic sets and the dialogue make for very believable scenes. The acting is very good from all involved. The soundtrack adds to the tense situation. There are light moments but this is a serious movie. Great first time direction from Chopra, he has taken a refreshing approach, let's hope he brings in more of the same.

This movie is a really good suspense thriller, and in my experience Bollywood films are generally much longer than this, usually 2.5 hours or more, and this one wasn't even 2 hours. I don't know much about suspense films in Bollywood, this is the first one by the industry that I have seen and I really enjoyed it. The acting performances are all great, especially by the police officer, played by Mr. Akshay khanna. I watched Sidharth in a lovely film called Kapoor and Sons and he was great in this one as well. The background score was terrific too. I read that it is actually based on an original film from 1969. Interestingly I recognize the lead actor in that one by the name Rajesh Khanna, as he was mentioned frequently in the amazing film Neerja that came out last year in 2016. So I will make sure to watch the original Ittefaq soon as well.

It has been a while since Bollywood has churned good thriller films. Films like Kahaani, Manorama-Six Feet Under, Error 404 or Phobia had a good twist which will remain embedded in your memories. Will Ittefaq be able to create enough tension to keep audience at bay ? let us find out ..

Ittefaq tells the story of 2 suspects (Siddharth Malhotra and Sonakshi Sinha) who are involved in a murder leading to 2 different stories that happened one night. The investigating officer (Akshaye Khanna) must be find out which story holds the fact.

First time director, Abhay Chopra, follows the foot-step of 1969's Ittefaq directed Yash Chopra but introduces his own world. The film has a pretty solid opening scenes involving car chases and the confrontation between Siddharth Malhotra and Sonakshi Sinha. The film adds more flavor with Akshaye Khanna entering the scene and taking the charge of murder. The director does a fine job in building tension when two victims tell their own version of stories. In second half, you will be convinced with the suspect and while everything is about to end well, there will be another twist in the end which is unconvincing and fails to keep the momentum. This is where director could have created more impact with crisp editing and interesting plot.

As a first timer, Abhay Chopra does a fine job but is mowed down by loose second half. Screenplay is good but suffers towards the climax. Better writing would have helped. Cinematography is just about okay while the background is decent (should be good in thriller films). Siddharth Malhotra does well as Vikram Sethi and emotes his expression better than his previous films. Sonakshi Sinha is wooden. It is Akshay Khanna who steals the show with his upright performance. He infuses humor in his character and is even speaks serious tone when investigating the complex case.

Overall, a fair attempt to show the double murder but is saddened by the weak spot. Decent 2.75 / 5

The director of this film seems to have worked hard to give his audience the chills and thrills that they want to see in such a movie, and he succeeds too. They audiences will remain hooked throughout making guesses only to be proved wrong. The film has an unpredictable climax and this makes it a watchable thriller too. However, in midst of all that there are some questions that remain there till the end. In acting, Sonakshi Sinha disappointingly has put up a week show. Akshay Khanna is awesome while Siddharth Malhotra does what he always does. Mandira Bedi has nothing to do in her cameo and the remaining cast is okay. I will go with 9/10 because such movies deserve being made in Bollywood.

This movie was a pack of suspense, everyone should watch. It was a good Indian movie that i watched in a long time. Star cast was good, story line was good and ending was not abrupt so thumbs up on that. 8/10 in my oppnion, a must was :).