Cast: Karan Kapadia, Sunny Deol, Ishita Dutta, Karanvir Sharma
Director: Behzad Khambatta
Rating: * * 1/2
Setting up a false logic in it’s attempt to garner thriller affect, this film by Behzad Khambatta turns the surprising gambit of a suicide bomber on the lose into an unbelievably, contrived and superciliously errant attempt at action and thrills.
Right from the first frame you know there’s something suspicious of this young man (Karan Kapadia) with his upper torso garbed in a hooded wind-breaker — who meets with an accident and suffers from amnesia. At the hospital, he sees flashes from his riot-impinged past, realises his name is Hanif and when taken to critical care, realises his chest is wired to a bomb.
ATS chief S. S Dewan (Sunny Deol), Police Commissioner Aruna, and support team consisting of Husna (Ishita Dutta) and Rohit (Karanvir Sharma) get to work hoping to unravel the mystery before everything goes up in a blast. They are basically starting from scratch (that’s why the moniker ‘Blank’), trying to get at together disparate clues in order to piece together connections to other sleeper cells and prevent a blast that could destabilise the entire city of Mumbai.
The basic premise is worthy but the treatment and writing fail to pass muster here. Instead of treating the known entity (suicide bomber) with cautious delicacy and guile, we have the law and order defenders going at him with fisticuffs and all guns blazing. It’s as though he doesn’t have a bomb connected to his heart-beat and the possibility of other sleeper cell connections going off doesn’t exist. The action fire-powered scenario choreographed here, plays contrary to the climactic essay, thus ringing entirely false.
Khambatta employs Sanjay Gupta’s standard issue tricks to rev up a narrative storm. Loud, thumping and totally enervating background music, constant cutting from scene to scene and dark, un-enlivening cinematography — which when spuriously coupled with stereotypical ‘Dhai Kilo Ka Haath’ Sunny Deol moments make a rather valiant bid for affect. Karan Kapadia (Actress Simple Kapadia’s Progeny) does well in his debut performance and Sunny’s appeal, though not as potent as in his heyday, allows for some ingratiation. Unfortunately the illogical plotting and the lack of narrative depth, is sure to leave the audience disengaged!