Film: "Rahasya"; Cast: Kay Kay Menon, Tisca Chopra, Ashish Vidyarthi,
Ashwini Kalsekar and Mita Vashisht; Director: Manish Gupta; Rating: *** ½
Half
of the star-rating extra for the sheer abundance of acting talent that
Manish Gupta’s stylish confidently-shot whodunit throws forward, with
Kay Kay Menon helming the murder mystery as an walnut-chomping CBI
officer on the trail of the murder of a young girl, who is killed in her
swanky home while her doctor-father was drunk in the next room.
No
no no...don’t go away! This is not the tragic Arushi Talwar murder
revisited and sensationalised on celluloid. Director Manish Gupta, who
has earlier made a strong but crude film on ragging, "Hostel", keeps the
proceedings on an even keel. Taking the Talwar tragedy as a take-off
point, writer-director Gupta has woven an intricate whodunit with enough
twists and turns to keep us guessing about the murderer’s identity till
the very end.
The killer’s identity, when revealed, is not entirely unexpected but nonetheless shocking and more importantly, convincing.
Whodunits
in Bollywood frequently flounder in their end-game. Not "Rahasya".
Gupta keeps the narrative going in a steady flow and at a perky pace.
The shots are cut deftly. Editor Suresh Pai gives the wide array of
characters ample room to breathe but never allows them to overstay their
welcome.
This suspense here largely depends on the efficacy of
the actors. And here’s where "Rahasya" really scores. Kay Kay Menon as
the wry investigative officer fighting off his wife’s persistent demands
to get corrupt, brings a tremendous engagingess to his character. His
character Sunil Paraskar is a man who survives the hardships of a
thankless job by cracking cruel jokes about himself and others.
There is a sequence where a character subtly tries to offer monetary gratification to Paraskar.
“You
aren’t trying to bribe me by any chance are you,†Kay Kay’s eyebrows
arch menacingly. When the temptation is hurriedly pulled back, he
growls: “Ah, a miscommunication.â€
Such moments of delectable
humour should have been present more frequently. Largely, "Rahasya" opts
for an exaggerated ambience, mood and treatment. The background music
by Ranjit Barot is excellently subdued, more suggestive than
illustrative. But the actors’ voices are over-dubbed and
over-punctuated.
Particularly grating on the nervous system is
that wonderful actress Ashwini Kalsekar, who as the dead girl’s nanny,
whines, sobs, moans and wails almost throughout the film.
We almost wish for one more murder to happen.
But
the actors nonetheless save the day. Besides Kay Kay, who is
spectacularly subtle, Tisca Chopra as the dead girl’s mother and a new
actor Nimai Bali as a corruptible cop, emerge triumphant. Mita Vashisht
as a smouldering mysterious television actress in backless cholis
attempts to be what was once described as the femme fatale. Given her
choice of lover for the film, Ms Vashisht ends up as all smoke with no
fire.
Admirably, the director shoots Mumbai’s underbelly -- the
chawls, narrow lanes, toilets and local trains -- with great affection.
Faroukh Mistry’s camera roams the city restlessly. The long shots of the
city waking from uneasy slumber every morning merge into the
microscopic view of the traumatised family.
This is a dark,
desperate, sinister, gutsy and gripping thriller which may not tilt you
to the edge of the seat. But you do want to know who killed the teenaged
girl Ayesha Mahajan.
The answer won’t please you for sure.
Messy
lives, sordid relationships, betrayal and revenge run through the veins
of the film. Barbara Cartland would have frowned. But Agatha Christie
would have assuredly approved.
