Cast: Aamir Khan, Rani Mukherjee, Kareena Kapoor, Nawazuddin Siddiqui, Shernaz Patel, Rajkumar Yadav, Sheeba Chadha
Director: Reema Kagti
What strikes you most when you start watching Talaash is its credits which includes Dialogues by Farhan Akhtar, story and screen play by Reema kagti and Zoya Akthar, and Anurag Kashyap in Cinematography department. Yet at some place it does seem a let-off, after all its is an Aamir Khan Movie!
Talaash, directed competently by Reema Kagti, opens with a leisurely paced shade of Mumbai after dark. Across the dirty bars and crampy gullies , camera pokes its head into the backrooms of brothels where prostitutes doll up before heading out to showcase their wares. Crummy-looking pimps lure prospective clients for their girls, an old destitute woman stares blankly huddled in a streetside corner, even as urchins tap hopefully on taxi windows.What Kagti conveys through Talaash is that this is a living-breathing strata of our society, and these people must matter – they deserve humanity and compassion.
The murder mystery is kicked off at the night when a film star drives his car straight into a railing and plunges it into the sea, killing himself. Inspector Surjan Singh Shekhawat (Aamir Khan) finds himself sucked into the underbelly of the city as he investigates this case that is evidently more complicated than it appears.Himself straining under the burden of guilt since the death of a loved one, Shekhawat immerses himself in the investigation, even as his wife Roshni (Rani Mukherjee) wrestles with depression and loneliness. As the cop spends long nights driving around the city’s darkest corners in search of clues, he’s befriended by a kindly hooker, Rosy (Kareena Kapoor), who helps him uncoil the maze of this case.
Talaash benefits from its crisply written characters and the exceptional actors who play these parts. As Taimur, the limping odd-jobs guy in the brothel, Nawazuddin Siddiqui is terrific, inhabiting the role like a chameleon. Playing Shekhawat’s junior officer, it takes Rajkumar Yadav just one scene – in which he’s merely a spectator with a single line of dialogue – to show what a good actor can bring even to a small part. The same is true of Shernaz Patel who shows up as a kooky psychic, and Sheeba Chadha who appears as a past-her-prime sex worker.
Of the leads, Kareena Kapoor brings both heat and heart to her role, despite the sometimes clunky lines she must mouth. Rani Mukherjee shines as the cop’s desperate wife, investing her performance with an array of emotions, never once reducing the character to a pathetic caricature. It’s Aamir Khan, in the film’s central role, who not surprisingly leaves the biggest impression. Shekhawat internalizes his emotions for the most part, and Aamir brings volumes of depth to this troubled man…that furrowed brow, the moustache, all adding to this remarkable performance.
But the most disappointing fact is there is not much to the movie. Apart from the initial tremors all the rest is pretty must base lined. It doesn’t feel nearly as tense or urgent as it ought to, and its plot simply isn’t as deliciously complex as it could’ve been. As a result, it’s a very watchable film, but not an unforgettable one.
Talaash is not a bad movie. Sad part is it isnt a much good one too! But watch it for its power performances. Powerful and definitive.
Rating : 3/5
