Neeyat Movie Review: On the whole, NEEYAT is a boring murder mystery.

NEEYAT is a murder mystery. Ashish Kapoor (Ram Kapoor) hosts his birthday party in his newly acquired Highgrave Castle, Scotland. The invitees are his close friend and ex-girlfriend Noor Suri (Dipannita Sharma Atwal), Noor's husband Sanjay Suri (Neeraj Kabi), Ashish's executive assistant Kay (Amrita Puri), Ashish's girlfriend Lisa (Shahana Goswami), Ashish's son Ryan (Shashank Arora), Ryan's girlfriend Gigi (Prajakta Koli), Ashish's dead wife's brother Jimmy Mistry (Rahul Bose), Ashish's dead wife's kin Sasha (Ishika Mehra) and Ashish's healer Zara (Niki Walia). The event manager is Tanveer (Danesh Rizvi). All is going well when suddenly Ashish Kapoor dies. Mira Rao (Vidya Balan) comes to investigate and she realizes that everyone is a suspect. What happens next forms the rest of the film.

 

 

Anu Menon, Advaita Kala and Girvani Dhyani's story is promising and could have made for a fantastic whodunit. Anu Menon, Priya Venkataraman, Advaita Kala and Girvani Dhyani's screenplay is insipid. The characters are well defined and their hidden motives also are nicely thought of. But the writing is devoid of exciting highpoints. Kausar Munir's dialogues are simple.

 

Anu Menon's direction is not up to the mark. She has a great premise in hand but is unable to do justice due to the poor script. A film like this should keep viewers hooked and make them guess who can be the killer. Sadly, NEEYAT becomes boring in the second half and one doesn't care after a point who could be the murderer.

 

On the positive side, the twist at the very end is unexpected. It saves the film from becoming an ultimate disaster. The performances are also decent. Vidya Balan is not at her best but nevertheless, performs ably. Ram Kapoor is superb. Rahul Bose goes overboard but it works for his character. Dipannita Sharma Atwal doesn't get much scope. Shashank Arora and Neeraj Kabi are dependable. Amrita Puri is okay. Prajakta Koli leaves a mark. Niki Walia is fair. Danesh Razvi is annoying. Ishika Mehra is wasted. Shefali Shah is terrific in a cameo

 

Neeyat – Official Trailer | Vidya Balan | Anu Menon | In Theatres 7th July

 

 

There's only one song in the film, 'Farebi', and it's forgettable. Mikey McCleary's background score has a British, mystery feel which goes well with the film and location.

 

Andreas Neo's cinematography is scenic. Stacey Dickinson's production design is very rich. Aastha Sharma's costumes reflect the elitism of the characters. Adam Moss' editing is neat.

 

On the whole, NEEYAT is a boring murder mystery. It will face a tough time in the cinemas.