Film: Maazii
Cast:  Sumit Nijhawan, Mona Basu, Pankaj Tripathi, Manav Kaushik, Manish Chaudhari, Zakir Hussain
Director: Jaideep Chopra.

Jaideep Chopra’s debut-making  directorial effort has Sumit Nijhawan, script-writer and co-dialogue writer playing the starring role as Tarun, a peace loving florist who finds himself challenged by fate when two thugs threaten his secure, peaceful life.

A can of worms opens up thereafter and Sumit finds himself struggling to keep his family together while new threats keep emerging from his not so distinguished past. The story does sound a fair bit like the hollywood thriller ‘Taken’ starring Liam Neeson  but there is fair bit of inventiveness in this inspiration  to make the experience different-if not exactly original entirely.

What strikes you the most here is the treatment which stays well below the decibel notes that we expect from normal Bollywood fare. The narrative is a little too long drawn and the somnabulence evident in the lead character’s attitude is a little too underwhelming to be effective completely.

Sumit Nijhawan plays the lead character with a dead-pan reverence which just does not help elevate the drama of a dacoit’s son seeking to change his destiny by choosing to forfeit his criminal inheritance for a happily married, unexciting existence.

Jaideep Chopra’s narrative takes a little too long to establish the central conceit and once it’s done he turns things around without much justification.

The irritating background score also makes it difficult to get excited even though there is a fair bit of tension and dread in the manner in which the revelations roll out.

The pretentiously restive first forty minutes makes it imperative for the narrative to turn on its head and therefore becomes predictable. There are a few smart performances in the assembly but it’s not enough to elevate this wannabe thriller to the heights it aims for!

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