It’s a sudden seasonal flurry of multiple releases on big screen and OTT. For example, seven (!!) movies are releasing this week and we do not know what will happen to the collections of the films concerned.
And so to pre-empt the glut, I have decided to look at the new Parineeti Chopra film, Reporting Live, preceded by Shaque and her debut web series together. Now Chopra, whose excellent work includes Hasee Toh Phasee, Daawat-E-Ishq, Saina, Unnchai and Amar Singh Chamkila, has proved to be a consummate actress in these and other films in a career spanning 23 films in 15 years. So let us examine how she fares here.
Shaque: Trust No One
Parineeti plays Ankita, a mother whose newborn infant is kidnapped from the maternity ward. While the police are baffled as the close-circuit cameras in the right places are not working, she is completely traumatized. Though she later has another daughter, Siddhi (Ebadat Hussain), she psychologically cannot do justice as a mother to her. The worst part is that she gets a picture of her missing kid, (minus the face) delivered every year on that date!
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Her relationship with her husband Alok (Tahir Raj Bhasin) is also rocky, as he is having an affair with her best friend, Shreya (Harleen Sethi)—wonder how Siddhi happened with this dual situation! And Shreya’s husband, Dr. Bhaskar (Sumit Vyas) has been the obstetrician when the child was kidnapped in the dead of night. A disturbed Ankita ‘sees’ her missing child in many children now, causing Alok embarrassment, but later, fingers seem to point at new acquaintance Sakshi (Jennifer Winget) and her daughter, who is Siddhi’s best friend. An investigating officer (Annup Soni) is loyal to Ankita and does his dogged best—for nine years. He is the only man Ankita can trust.
The film has an interesting premise and a convoluted plotline, and Chopra does a fine job as the distraught mother whose behavior is naturally unpredictable and socially disturbing. Among the rest of the cast, Sumit Vyas, Annup Soni and Harleen Sethi score. Soni Razdan is good as the mother-in-law whose motivations are also suspect. The technical side is decent.
But if I have a problem, it is with the end, which could have been much more congenial for all—the viewer, the child and Ankita. And I do not want to give a spoiler here.
Rating: **1/2
Reporting Live
This is a Netflix film (the above show was also on Netflix) about a dogged investigative journalist, Sandhya (Parineeti Chopra), who chances upon an illegal sand-mining racket when her colleague cameraman, Vinod (Deven Bhojani) and she go to a small town to cover a bridge collapse that kills a busload of children. Quite obviously, the rot goes all the way to the top from the corrupt contractors to the kingpin builder (Nasser) and even Sandhya’s media bosses.
This is an amateurish follow-the-cliched-template movie, superficially scripted and treated with a lot of “inspiration” from real life as well as “reel life.” As Sandhya, a rather dense character on occasion who must show her single-minded passion for her job at the cost of her life (if needed), Chopra gets into a mode in which she does not really seem comfortable. The same holds true for Deven Bhojani, that fine performer who delivers an ace all the time (Dhabkaaro and Chumbak of late). Nasser hams, so does Shekhar Suman, while Amol Palekar is the only one who makes a mark, even if a unidimensional role. The rest of the cast and the technical side are average, but the writing and direction are below par.
And once again, I have a problem with the end. Why, oh, why, must such “inspired” filmmakers and writers devise such needlessly dark climaxes?
Chopra, whose high points after her sabbatical include sterling work like Mission Raniganj, Uunchai and Amar Singh Chamkila, needs to be much more judicious in her choice of assignments.
Rating: *1/2
Netflix presents Alchemy Productions’ Shaque: Trust No One Produced by; Siddharth P. Malhotra & Sapna Malhotra Created by: Siddharth P. Malhotra Directed by: Rensil D’Silva Written by: Rensil D’Silva, Riva Razdan Kapoor, Venika Malhotra, Abbas Dalal & Hussain Dalal Music: Raju Singh Starring: Parineeti Chopra, Jennifer Winget, Soni Razdan, Annup Soni, Tahir Raj Bhasin, Sumeet Vyas, Harleen Sethi, Dhruv Choudhry, Tarana Raja Kapoor, Veer Rajwant Singh, Trisha Singh, Ebadat Hussain & others
Netflix presents Old Monk Entertainment’s Reporting Live Produced by: Partha Kiran Thakur & Joshua Shirsath, Directed by: Dhruv Tripathi Written by: Mihir Jadhav & Dhruv Tripathi Music: Zubin Balaporia & Dhruv Tripathi, and Vijay Prakash Starring: Parineeti Chopra, Deven Bhojani, Amol Palekar, Adil Hussain, Shekhar Suman, Nasser, Pitobash, Geeta Agrawal Sharma, Sameer Kochhar & others
