Apurva

Apurva (2023) : Movie Review:

Nikhil Nagesh Bhat's crime thriller, Apurva, stars Tara Sutaria, Abhishek Banerjee, Rajpal Yadav, Dhairya Karwa, Sumit Gulati, and Aaditya Gupta. We have seen the Anushka Sharma starrer "NH 10," which had a similar story to Apurva, but the latter is based on a true event and is more about the leading lady than a couple (like the former). This genre of escape thriller/drama needs extreme detailing in the screenplay and storyline, which Apurva lacks. On a positive note, all the actors have done a brilliant job, and their efforts are enough to make this one a pretty average, decent watch.

In Chambal, a group of four hoodlums: Jugnu (Rajpal Yadav), Sukha (Abhishek Banerjee), Balli (Sumit Gulati), and Chota (Aditya Gupta) loot people and kill them. While overtaking a luxury bus, Jugnu is abused by a driver, and then he stops the bus, shoots the driver, and kills the conductor/cleaner. Sukha and Balli enter the bus and start looting jewellery and clothes from passengers, and one of them is Apurva (Tara Sutaria). Apurva is receiving a call from her boyfriend, Sid (Dhairya Karwa), who speaks badly to Sukha over the call. To seek revenge and be all lusty over Apurva's beauty, Sukha and his gang members kidnap her and take her to a deserted place. The four of them plan to rape Apurva and then kill her the next day. Will Apurva's brave efforts be enough to find an escape from these four violent and ruthless people?

Nikhil Nagesh Bhat's Apurva is fine story to pick up for a thrilling and intense ride, but like I said, this genre needs a sharp screenplay. Apurva is far from that. It's not sharp, and that's okay, but it's too thin and blurry. The screenplay is scattered, and that's why the entire build-up collapses on the ground. A girl cannot run away despite having so many opportunities; she can see through a brick wall, but not run away; she can find a hideout at the same place instead; she even knows where the car is parked; she can use a weapon whenever she wants and it can disappear as per situations; the fellas with guns will not shoot the girl; one slap is enough to make a girl highly unconscious, but several falls can still leave enough power for her to run; a man can be alive even after falling into a deep well, but one rock hit is enough to make him quite and how Apurva did it, don't ask; the man with injured legs can catch up with the car and then suddenly lie down and beg for his life on the railroad. There are so many illogical movements, and nothing actually grips you. That's where Apurva falls, and it falls flat. It doesn't matter how many positive points the film has; the screenplay is so messy that it doesn't give the film any chance to recover.

Since her debut, Tara Sutaria has always been a hero's heroine, who would do romance, grand makeup, glamorous outfits, and sweet talk. With Apurva, she finally enters the "actor's" zone, and HOW! In the first scene and flashback romance, she is the same Tara you have seen in previous films. But she had to look beautiful so that the physical transformation would make more sense. It works. This is her best performance so far, and I think she should continue doing such meaty roles where people would be more attracted to her acting than just her beautiful face. Abhishek Banerjee is solid again, and this was a tailor-made role for him. He fits so well into everything. Rajpal Yadav is another great performer here, despite having fewer dialogues. This man has been so underrated for years, and all people remember of him is comedy. Please be sensible; he is way bigger and better than that. Sumit Gulati's accent is fantastic, Aditya Gupta looked fine, and Dhairya Karwa is decent in his supporting role.

Another good thing about Apurva is its cinematography. Anshuman Mahaley gets all the credit for that. Still, I think a few scenes could have been shot in a better way. For instance, in that well scene, when Tara is running, she slips suddenly and realises that there is a well at her feet. The camera takes it from her feet; instead, it should have started from the deep well, in the dark, and then come to the surface. The surprise element would have worked better this way, in my opinion. The music and background score are forgettable. The editing is tight as the film doesn't have a long runtime and doesn't have any loo breaks apart from that at one romantic song. Nikhil Nagesh Bhat's direction is very notable in some scenes. Apurva and Chota crawl on the floor, all in mud, and then she hits him hard-such a raw presentation of the situation. Apurva's marking system and hideouts also seemed very smart; only that they were predictable but very well presented on the screen. It's the screenplay that fails to live up to the standards of direction, acting, and storyline. It's good that the film is coming on OTT since the subject hardly had any appeal for big-screen audiences. As a whole, Apurva is a promising film and could have been a much better film, but the screenplay doesn't fit right here. Yet, you can watch it for the good performances by Tara Sutaria, Rajpal Yadav, and Abhishek Banerjee.

RATING - 5/10*

A thriller movie in which heroine is hero , faces different types of hard situations, but wisely or accidentally , is out of that danger . What Would be next & what will happen to her , would she be able to save herself & her prestige, are the questions in mind of viewer of the movie . Fortunately she wins & a happy ending . Situation , location , surroundings , night scenes of chambal valley , a well , police behaviour make that all real . The heroine , all the Villains have acted well according to their role & situation . Overall a good movie & i couldn't take break in between , till , it ended . Best wishes to the director & actors .

I kept getting disappointed while I watched this. I don't know how they created a little hype for this by its trailer and promos, those scenes look big in trailer but has no meaning in the real movie. Abhishek Banerjee outshines everyone in this even though the writing is extremely poor. I've never watched any movie of Tara Sutaria and I didn't like her overacting in this movie. Rajpal Yadav tried to bring a change in his character through this but failed. Some scenes in the movie made me laugh for its stupidity. I've rated it 2 for the trailer and if you really wanna watch then go for NH10. Now I understand why NH10 was so good. I had to write this review because of my disappointed. If makers are reading this then please get a good plot next time.

The trailer looked really nice. So, I decided to watch this movie. After completing this movie, I am numb. Meaning, I am neither happy, nor angry. The movie story went straightforward. We already knew what was going to happen to the main character as it was already shown in the trailer. I just wanted to see the way the character would do that. The writing was really bad. However, it will keep you engaged for most parts. The ending was incomplete. The writer didn't told us about the aftermath of the incident after the lead character returns. Like, they didn't revealed anything about the goons, no actions were taken against the people who hired them, or they couldn't take the actions, in the story of the movie, none of that was mentioned. So, this is an incomplete movie and I felt numb after watching that. However, I'm a fan of Rajpal Yadav and he did really well. One of the guy in the movie with the glasses and beard, the final villain also did great performance. So, that it, 6 out of 10.

This was indeed a surprise package. I was expecting a shoddily done half baked crime thriller movie which sort of has been the 'speciality' of Disney HotStar in recent times. But luckily this wasn't the case with Apurva. First of all, the cinematography of the movie is top notch. It has been shot on real locations and the scenes are brilliantly shot. Even the BGM is good, it's not overdone.

But the main reason why this was such a good watch was because of the three menacing characters played by Abhishek Banerjee, Sumit Gulati and of course Rajpal Yadav as 'Jugnoo'. They ooze terror throughout the movie. It was great to see Rajpal Yadav doing a dark and negative role and he aced it. He's such a versatile actor. Also the movie keeps you on the edge of the seat throughout but the story and the plot is similar to NH10 starring Anushka Sharma.

Some of the negative aspects are continuity issues in some place, the actors not speaking in the chambal accent and few stretched scenes here and there.

Overall a good watch. Highly recommended.