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This week saw two big releases—Meghna Gulzar’s Daayra, a crime thriller inspired by dark reality and Kunal Kemmu’s Vibe, an action comedy of two normal youths coerced into going on a patriotic mission against their will.
The trailers of both films were quite appetizing, and I confess I went with great hopes for another week of great releases, where both films were solid value-for-money entertainment, with the first also examining social issues.
The Vibe from Daayra
The vibe from Daayra is very positive. At 143 minutes, believe me, there is not an extra frame that needs to be edited out. And so there is not a dull moment in the fascinating way the film is structured and narrated.
DCP Raman Kumar (Prithviraj Sukumaran) gets a twinge of guilt and repressed anger after his team and he have apprehended the rapists and murderers of Ragini Poojary (Pragati Mishra) following a meticulous and rapid investigation, but has found Ragini’s mother (Kshitee Jog) far from happy.
Why? Because there is yet no closure for son (Bhavesh Babbani) and her. The criminal trial will begin, they might waste years in court, and the accused might get away from capital punishment that they deserve on grounds of mental instability or other such excuses.
The film opens with the news that the four have been shot dead in a police encounter as they tried to flee. Raman is being cheered by the people and his superior, Commissioner Anand (Biswapati Sarkar) is also hailed.
But human rights activists term it a fake encounter, and the high-ups assign a Special Investigation Team led by Ajooni Kohli (Kareena Kapoor Khan), for a fact-finding mission.
Ajooni is the daughter of a judge (Kanwaljit Singh), who has been shot once outside the court and the trial of his would-be assassin has been dragging on endlessly. However, both father and daughter believe firmly in the process of law and justice.As she investigates, Ajooni has more and more reason to suspect that the encounters were fake as so many loopholes surface.
The film moves relentlessly on two parallel paths: Ajooni’s investigation into Raman’s work and Raman’s investigation that had already happened. This duality makes for a heady thriller format, and finally Raman, who has been avoiding meeting Ajooni personally, has an interaction with Ajooni. Everything is out in the open. Ajooni and Raman have found out everything about each other, including the honors they have received. So is Raman guilty? Where does the scope of a policeman end and that of the court of law begin? And is the latter really foolproof?
A masterly touch is of showing a real juvenile offender’s stall at two junctures, including in the climax where Ajooni and Raman go their own separate ways. This man, now an adult, was part of the real-life Nirbhaya’s rapists and murderers who is now free today after he was sent on a reform program instead of being sentenced—despite having willingly been a part of the heinous crime. This depiction clearly shows what the director’s personal stand is!
Prithviraj Sukumaran is excellent as the determined Raman, who has a healthy disrespect for law when it does not deliver justice due to technical grounds, and when cases get stretched with interminable delays. This is his best, or should I say, only worthy Hindi role to date and he makes the most of it.
Kareena Kapoor Khan’s menacing undertones and piercing eyes do most of the acting and her sardonic smile adds to an unforgettable turn. Casting director Taran Bajaj and the film’s captain of the ship Meghna Gulzar deserve accolades for casting this Kapoor perennial as Ajooni. In a word, she is outstanding,
From the supporting cast, all of whom do well (thanks again, Mr. Bajaj!), a standout turn come from Kshitee Jog as the victim’s mother. Her breakdown scene is magnificent, as also the way she shows her settled despair as, first, the mother of a missing daughter and next, as her grieving mother. Jitendra Joshi as inspector Karad and the actor who plays the recalcitrant inspector who does not file a report stand out among them.
Meghna’s direction, script (with Yash Keswani and Sima Agarwal) and editing (with Charu Shree Roy) form the formidable triad on which this quasi-masterpiece rests. Saurabh Goswami’s mood cinematography and Ketan Sodha’s immensely powerful background score add to the overall brilliance.
To sum up, the vibe of Daayra is superb.
Rating: ****1/2
The Daayra (ambit) of Vibe!
What can one say about the unfulfilled Daayra (ambit or scope) of the film, Vibe? What can one say of a film that has a brilliant first half, and then falls prey to the lure of lavish foreign locales and spectacular action, which is one reason, we are told, for Preity G. Zinta accepting the role as Madam H.
The film begins with Hardik (Kunal Kemmu), an ex-junkie out of rehab, getting a job in his ‘only family’ (as he describes friend Bugs)’s firm, Next Phase Tech. Bugs a.k.a. Bhagirath (Sparsh Srivastava) is a straight-thinking, normal young man. Among the unwritten rules of his company is that dating and beyond between boys and girls is expressly forbidden, but Hardik is smitten by intern Kareena (Vanshika Dhir) and chases her affections. Finally, she also starts liking him.
After a date night that is also late night, Hardik is captured by mysterious forces and finds himself being grilled and roughed up. Turns out he is suspected of being involved with Kareena, who is actually the sister of terrorist Abu Al Sayeed (Hiten Paintal). Is he also combining with antinational forces who are conspiring against India? The forces who have captured him are from Vibe, a security agency led by Madam H.
Soon Madam H and her chief deputies, Bansi (Dinesh Lal Yadav ‘Nirahua’) and Rawal (Yashpal Sharma) realize that Hardik himself is innocent, and now the plan is to keep an eye on Kareena’s father, Badshah (Mark Bennington) as he is visiting India. Badshah has no criminal record officially, is a prosperous business magnate, but intelligence reports suggest that he is also funding his son’s subversive activities.
Soon Bugs and Hardik are brought in by Vibe to go on a dangerous mission to Bangkok to serve the nation. By this time, Kareena has been killed in an explosion. What happens after that?
Though peppered with largely delightfully wacky humor almost throughout, the film turns into a serious actioner in the last 30-40 of a long 146 minutes when it could have been a crisp and cerebral minus-120 minute caper. The humor is a great mix of slapstick, one-liners, shoutouts to Salman Khan, Huma Qureshi, Aamir Khan and more and to films as diverse as Dabangg, Taare Zameen Par and Hollywood sagas and other gags. Much resources are needlessly splurged in the second half with explosions, action and property damage and an end suggesting—is it any longer a surprise?—the likelihood of a sequel.
To give due credit, Kemmu’s sharp lines and his brand of quirky humor are very enjoyable. But to give their flipside, the zingy comedy itself leads to even greater disappointment due to the triteness that we get in the end.
Performance-wise, Preity G. Zinta is good yet clearly uncomfortable on occasion. Kunal Kemmu is in form. Sparsh Srivastava impresses hugely, both as the straight Bhagirath and with his occasional outbursts of stress. Vanshika Dhir as Kareena makes a very promising debut. Nirahua and Sharma are quite good, but Rajesh Krishnan in a cameo as Bugs’ boss is truly hilarious.
From the songs, Raaton mein aana sung and composed by Amit Trivedi with lyrics by Kumaar works despite the yawning, sometimes incoherent, rendition by him. Why do today’s composers opt for over-low-pitched and flat (alternating with high-pitched) renditions instead of a consistently proper emotional expression? Why not take a song outside the daayra of a bland flavor and heard-before lyrics? And that applies even more to the rest of the tracks. John Stewart Eduri, however, does a neat job of the background score.
Wish the daayra of a quirky spy caper had been truly respected instead of the writer-filmmaker catapulting the story beyond into an oh-so-familiar zone, earlier seen in multiple movies, serials and series, and thus going haywire.
Daayra Rating: ****1/2 Junglee Pictures’ & Pen Audio’s Daayra Produced by: Vineet Jain & Dhaval Gada Directed by: Meghna Gulzar Written by: Yash Keswani, Sima Agarwal & Meghna Gulzar Music: Amit Trivedi Starring: Kareena Kapoor Khan, Prithviraj Sukumaran, Kshitee Jog, Jitendra Joshi, Pragati Mishra, Bhavesh Babbani, Biswapati Sarkar, Brij Bhushan Shukla, Kanwaljit Singh & others
Vibe Rating: **1/2 Amazon MGM Studios’ & Drango Films’ Vibe Produced by: Kunal Kemmu & Chirag Nihalani Written & Directed by: Kunal Kemmu Music: Amit Trivedi, Kanishka Pal, Kunal Kemmu, Bharath, Raghav Meattle & Ashutosh Anand Starring: Preity G. Zinta, Kunal Kemmu, Sparsh Srivastava, Vanshika Dhir, Yashpal Sharma, Dinesh Lal Yadav ‘Nirahua’, Hiten Paintal, Mark Bennington, Salem Kali, Rajesh Krishnan, Sp. App.: Aaditya Kulshreshth ‘Kullu’ & Uorfi Javed & others
