TALAASH _ ***
I now understand why being a critic is difficult at times, the genre in which this movie is made; am not a big fan, but will not get biased by it and try to give my near honest opinion. Talaash is a riveting and fascinating suspense story; with an intriguing screenplay and a spellbinding culmination, a thriller definitely worth watching. Just to add it is not just a suspense thriller but a −−−−−−−−−−−− suspense thriller, will leave the blank unfilled for now. Let me also give some brain twisting work! If you get the blank you get the climax :)
The STORY is the hero of this movie and the due credit goes to Reema Kagti and Zoya Akhtar who share the honors. Suspense movies have become a rarity in Bollywood in last few years, so it is pleasing to watch this engrossing flick. A thriller should hold one’s attention; drift in different directions and to reach a finale which takes you by surprise. And Talaash does it all superbly. It is a gripping mystical murder mystery right from the word goes. It equally is also an exploration into the world of ‘unresolved grief’!
So we have Inspector Surjan Singh Sheikhawat (Aamir Khan) investigating a car accident of an actor Arman Kapoor who jumps off his car into the sea in the wee hours of morning for reasons unfound. As he investigates he meets a host of character on who doubts galore which include actor’s wife, his friend, a pimp and his girl friend, an escort girl and a small time side kick of pimp.
However our Inspector also has to deal with his own demons, he himself is suffering from unresolved grief of his 8 year old son’s death which he thinks he is responsible. While his wife Rani deals with it more maturely by visiting a psychiatrist. Things change on the family side when they enter a new neighbor hood where one of their neighbors brings about some change in their life in her own way.
As story progresses our hero gets more involved in the murkier world of red light where in the escort he meets (Kareena Kapoor) leads him to the path of recovery from grief and to the solution of complex puzzling murder mystery.
If only the murder mystery would have been so simple to solve. It is multilayered and Reema takes her own sweet time to peel each layer step by step. She maintains the curiosity right till the mystical end and full points to Reema in achieving that. I’m in awe of Reema for while proceeding towards finale by joining each dot, she misguides us intentionally taking us in the direction she wants to; whilst at the same time she keeps giving clues of the reality time to time right from the initial scene, if only one could catch that! Kudos to her, she surely does a highly impressive narrative. She also succeeds in tackling the emotional issues with equal aplomb. The trauma which Aamir goes through, his turmoil and tumult has been brought out in an equally endearing way. Each character has been built up to reach their highpoint. Probably she’s a very good at solving jigsaw puzzles!
I’m still thinking of what Aamir says, “Lagta hai ke sab kuch mere saamne hai, par main dekh nahin paa raha hoon†How True I Say! It Was Right There! And I couldn’t see. Pinky ko bhi pata chala kya hone waala hai :) :) Ha