So we’ve watched Indian versions of popular genres like comedies and action movies, but I do believe that this is the first time we’ve seen an Indian thriller. This one even distinguishes itself by having a female protagonist and takes itself so seriously that there are no song and dance routines.
Two years after a terrorist attack in a Kolkata Metro Rail train, the London-resident software engineer Vidya Bagchi arrives in the city in search of her husband. He came to the city to work on a project for a company called the National Data Center but has gone missing. Though heavily pregnant, Vidya canvases the city to look for him, assisted by a local police officer Rana Sinha. Everyone claims that they have not seen her husband but one manager at NDC tells her that her husband looks the exactly the same as one of their former employees, Milan Damji. Before the manager can give Vidya more information however, an assassin kills her. Vidya’s search alerts officials at India’s Intelligence Bureau. An agent, Khan, tries at first to persuade her to return to London but eventually reveals to her than Milan Damji is the prime suspect in the attack two years ago. Undeterred, Vidya is convinced that she must find this man in order to find out the truth about her husband.
The film proceeds pretty much just like the Hollywood super-spy thrillers that everyone are now familiar with, complete with the requisite twists, ruthless government agents, computer hacking and a steadily growing trail of bodies. It’s a little light on the action but that’s just as well as I prefer it to not be an action movie. Unfortunately it also inherits the characteristic of thrillers having so many moving parts and surprise twists that everything fails to fit together once you stop to think things through. For example, obtaining a critical piece of information from a random police informant doesn’t make much sense at all. I don’t believe the film even bothers to provide a motivation for the villains’ actions, probably because the filmmakers don’t wish to name any country or organization as a hostile entity.
On the plus side, I do like how the film uses a visibly pregnant female protagonist and shows every detail of how she doggedly pursues all leads even if some of them don’t pan out. Having it take place during the Durga Puja festival adds some very welcome local color. I understand that this film ended up being influential in highlighting the city of Kolkata as not many Indian films had been shot in it before this. Also well done was the hint of a romance between Vidya and Rana with the director being wise enough not to push it too far. As some have noted, it feels like a mature and progressive approach to recognize that a pregnant woman can still be very attractive.
Overall while I didn’t find this to be an especially good film it is entertaining enough and comparable in quality to Hollywood thrillers. It’s always worthwhile to see how the cinema of different countries handle familiar genres.