av-ankur

The film is a simple story, told in a somewhat preachy manner (e.g., the scene of Deepak showing the photo of his wife in the veil to a Muslim shopkeeper, even after knowing that the photo is no good, simply to drive home the message that the film wants to). However, the preachiness is somewhat hidden under the paan-smacking skills of the local police inspector, so it comes off as a breeze and probably the reason for it being popular. For breezy films have become scarce nowadays in Bollywood, with most films being thrillers or heavy-dose nationalism oriented ones.

The film's main fault is its inconsistency in characters and dialogues. Only Sparsh as Deepak impresses, and Chhaya Kadam as Manju Mai is excellent. But the two laapata ladies do not deliver very well, as they are unable to go into their characters. Nitanshi Goel as Phool is overnight too bold for her character, while Pratibha Ranta as Jaya comes across as too sneaky to let you believe that she was so docile into marrying against her wishes. In addition, Ranta looks too urbane for the character and the kind of Hindi dialect thrown into her mouth, and this shows in her inconsistent articulation. Phool, too, has too clean a Hindi for the kind of character she is playing. And then Geeta Sharma, playing Deepak's mother, is carrying on her role from 12th Fail, with the same drawling accent, which is completely misplaced here, with the surroundings and the rest of the family having no such accent. Some of these inconsistencies will be lost on the international audience and maybe even some Indian audiences who haven't ventured out from their plush metro living halls.

The film could have been better with a better backstory to Jaya's character and better coaching skills to both the lead actresses. Right now, it's a miss, but still it can be considered moderately good for its breeziness and attempt to drive home an important message.

This film reminds me of many British films showing the seamy side of life, with insecurities, poverty and being disadvantaged all leading to some inevitable tragedy. Most actors are solid here, except for a miscast Marina Berti. The story, however, is with a bit of gaping holes that the screenplay does nothing to cover up. All that said, there's a tinge of horror to the film just because of the camerawork and the shooting locales and sets. That the horror of a crime engendered because of poverty can weigh so heavy on the viewer is a feat achieved by only a very few director-cameraperson combos.

When even an inquisitive neigbour is well cast and does her role well in a scene lasting hardly 2 minutes, a film is usually excellent. The plot, while not extremely strong, is decent, but the cinematography (which is what a noir often relies on) and cast are on the top of their game, especially all the side characters, such as Lee J. Cobb playing the inspector, Thomas Gomez playing the oily businessman, or an incredibly sexy Ellen Drew playing a potential femme fatale. The plot may not be its strongest point, but the depth of the characters is: there is Charlie, bringing in the element of jealousy and possible romantic involvement with the film's hero, there is the insecure but rich Gomez, there is the bonding between two people who pretend to be "tough as nails" but emotionally need security in the film's protagonist couple, and there's the Javert-like inspector, doggedly in pursuit of the hero, who, Valjean-like, starts smelling the nemesis.