Cast: Jaideep Ahlawat, Aakash Dahiya, Vansh Bhardwaj, Chandrachoor Rai, Shadab Kamal, Jatin Sarna, Nikhil Punia
Director: Zeeshan Quadri
Rating: * *
Runtime: 129 mins
Helmer and writer Zeishan Quadri is better known for his scripting exploits in the two part Anurag Kashyap directed treatise on criminals in the hinterland, ‘Gangs of Wasseypur’. Ambitions have a way of taking over sound intelligence and Quadri too takes the leap from scriptwriter to Director in this his opening career gambit as the wielder of the megaphone.
The territory is familiar of course. It’s small-town UP. Meerut to be precise and a motley gang of misfits from college decide to go full-on criminal in order to gain a foothold in the class echelons of rural society.
Quadri takes a leaf out of his mentor’s eclectic arsenal, traversing familiar ground with his take on the budding criminal groups that flourish in small–town Meerut. They are rogues who think nothing of cheating or kidnapping for a fast buck while seeking justification in trying to stamp their significance on some wily moneyed folks. Call it vengeance or retribution the bottom-line is- they pull off criminal deeds without thought for either planning or consequence. It’s a blinkered vision that gets nowhere especially when neither the tone nor tenor is significant enough to matter. What passes off as a narrative is totally farcical but the enjoyment is paltry, limited to a few stray amusing moments. Quadri isn’t sure he wants to go with farce or satire. The tone thereof is quite a middle path that never sharpens up for either effect or affect. The actors appear confident but their characters have meaningless turns that makes them all look insignificant in the scheme of things. This is really Quadri’s effort to make a mark in the Bollywood firmament –in which he has fared quite abysmally!