The Hindi remake of Vishnu Vishal’s ‘Ratsasan’ comes across as a generic thriller that fails to generate any emotional connection with the characters.
The Hindi remake of Vishnu Vishal’s ‘Ratsasan’ comes across as a generic thriller that fails to generate any emotional connection with the characters.
This monsoon, the Hindi cinematic universe is flooded with thrillers, remakes and Akshay Kumar. This week we have a three-in-one situation: a thriller that is a remake of a Tamil hit and Akshay Kumar stars in his third film in three months. Overkill, anyone?
aspiration to be described as slow burning, puppet is an air-popped thriller that feels like one of those episodes cid, One who keeps your interest without aiming to excel. It’s the kind of movie where the officer doesn’t see the obvious details until the protagonist points it out. There are no editing tricks or annoying sounds; The saving grace is that it makes no direct effort to drag us to the edge of the seat.
Loyal to Source, Tamil Film Ratasana (2018), it follows a serial killer who ruthlessly targets teenage schoolgirls in the beautiful city of Kasauli in Himachal Pradesh and leaves the ferocious face of a Cinderella doll as his signature. He is followed by Arjan Sethi (Akshay Kumar), a sub-inspector who was once an aspiring filmmaker specializing in serial killer stories.
Rejected by the makers, Arjan joins the police on the advice of his brother-in-law Narinder (Chandrachur Singh) and uses his research on psychopaths to solve the case. Initially, her methods are ridiculed by her official SHO Parmar (Sargun Mehta), but as the murders do not subside, Arjan emerges as the best bet to solve the mystery.
By half-time, the needle of suspicion goes to a perverted schoolteacher. But after an hour, we can understand that director Ranjit Tiwari wants us to interact with the red herons in the hills. However, the journey between the turns is not compelling enough, and the tremendous climax leaves one exhausted. For a story so steeped in sadness, there is only one sequence that strangles us. For the large part, it turns out to be a crime story in a newspaper where the facts exist, but there is little to read between the lines. After the initial spark, the romance between Arjan and schoolteacher Divya (Rakul Preet Singh) also follows a predictable arc.
The good thing is that for a change, the action sequences don’t demand Akshay to perform incredible stunts, allowing Arjan to be intertwined. There are moments where the actor’s inherent simplicity comes to the fore, providing breathing space in the midst of the chase.
However, casting Akshay in a suspense-thriller has its limits as no amount of air brushing can turn the star into a 36-year-old, and his unstoppable image gets in the way of any suspense the makers are trying to generate. We do. Vishnu Vishal was not a big name when he did Ratasana, So, when he outlived his superior superiors, it set the narrative in motion. There is no such sentiment here; It might not be the one-man army in this particular outing, but it remains an Akshay Kumar show all the way. The star deserves praise for trying out different variations of the same template, but he’s playing them with the intensity of a well-oiled machine that’s more efficient than exciting.
The underrated Chandrachur once again excels in a small part. Cast in an interesting role, Sargun is a bit more mindful of portraying a cop leading a team, and a little more layering of his character would have helped. Talented Rakul Preet Singh is seen using small portions with big stars as investments for the future. With hardly any character arc, his performance is like this typical thriller… with no official signature.
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