Starring: Parineeti Chopra, Arjun Kapoor, Neena Gupta, Raghuvir Yadav, Jaideep Ahlawat and Dinker
Director: Dibakar Banerjee
This new suspense drama from Amazon Prime comes packed with some solid script, direction and acting credentials, with a curious opening sequence that promises to have you hooked from the very first frame.
Sandeep a.k.a. Sandy Walia (Chopra) is a sophisticated and suave professional working for one of India’s leading banks and, as it soon becomes apparent, embroiled in an ill-advised office romance with her boss Parichay (Dinker). Satinder Dahiya a.k.a. Pinky (Kapoor) by contrast is a less cultivated and rather brash small-town boy who is determined to please his boss, Tyagi (Ahlawat), in order to be welcomed back into the Haryana Police fold following a mystery suspension.
After an innocuous task of collecting Sandy from a high-end Delhi restaurant and delivering her to a pre-agreed point goes dangerously awry, Pinky becomes aware of a more sinister plot afoot at influential levels of the banking industry, police force and even the government. His animal instinct tells him to get rid of Sandy for good, but his human instinct ends up as her reluctant protector.
Sandy, meanwhile, struggles to come to terms with the threat to her life from someone she thought was her lover. As she discovers she is pregnant, her focus turns entirely towards protecting her unborn baby and in the process Sandy and Pinky find themselves on the run in the foothills of the Himalayas as part of an elaborate scheme to cross the border into Nepal.
MORE LIKE THIS…
During a stopover en route to acquiring fake passports for this dubious border crossing, Sandy and Pinky come across an amiable and trusting elderly couple, Aunty (Gupta) and Uncle (Yadav), who offer them shelter in their home – for a price. It is obvious that all these characters would eventually be drawn into the rather twisted web of deceit, fraud and betrayal that is being woven in the background.
Dibakar Banerjee’s grip over the direction of this tale is the big winner, as he succeeds in keeping the audience guessing and engaged through most of the frames. Parineeti Chopra as the over-ambitious banking expert delivers one of her most under-stated performances and manages to make Sandy Walia somewhat relatable as a flawed professional with questionable scruples. But the scene stealers are acting stalwarts Neena Gupta and Raghuvir Yadav, who play the deeply devoted and constantly squabbling married couple to perfection.
The result is an entertaining film that does not waste too much screen time on unnecessary footage, with even the song and dance sequences cued appropriately.
*iGlobal Review Series
