A THRILLER UNLIKE ANY OTHER

CAST: KK Menon, Mandira Bedi, Raima Sen, Sharib Hashmi

DIRECTOR: Kushal Shrivastava

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It isn’t often that we get to see a suspense thriller that dares to go that extra mile in pursuit of some novelty in a genre that invariably relies on cliché for effect.

Vodka Diaries is high on pegs of pungent potshots taken at the suspense genre. It defies the ground rules laid down by the architects of the suspense genre (whoever they might be) and deconstructs the entire edifice of intrigue into a cat-and-mouse chase which culminates in a frightening psychological disorder.

The film opens with an impressive severe topshot of a distraught KK Menon running through the snow of what we soon come to know is Manali. It’s a breathtaking shot and kudos to cinematographer Manish Chandra Bhatt. You suspect debutant director Kushal Shrivastava constructed the entire plot of suspicion and murder from this visually surcharged startingpoint.

Luckily for the debutant director, and for us, the narrative suffers from no serious starter’s hiccups. It gets involved in its own complexities without losing track of the myriad characters’ motivations. The very talented KK Menon takes a bit of time to settle into the wheels-within-wheels that run through the narrative in scampering motions. But he soon settles down to a distraught destiny set aside for his character.

Mandira Bedi, an asset to any project, has a limited screen occupancy. And she makes the best of it. But after Menon, the actor with the best lines and moments is Sharib Hashmi. Last seen in Phullu, Hashmi chews eagerly on every scene provided to him as Menon’s sidekick.

Raima Sen, another beautiful and neglected actress, walks in and out of the proceedings as though shooting in bouts when on vacation. There are several such cameos in the plot. And I held my breath to see how the director Kushal Shrivastava and his writer Vaibhav Bajpai balance out the ostensible out-of-control plot about a cop who seem be losing control over the goings-on.

Luckily, the director never loses the plot as he manoeuvres the tricky suspense through a maze of deception and delusion, on to a bumpy but safe landing.

Vodka Diaries is not a great suspense drama when compared with the Hitchcockian tradition. God knows, the genre has not been much explored in Bollywood. Still in its infancy the

What keeps the quirky characters afloat are the spunky, rustic dialogues that are gags by themselves. On the performance front all actors have put their heart and soul into their characters and they shine on screen. Unfortunately the characters are two-dimensional and cardboard thin. Of the supporting cast, Sobhita Dhulipala as Zubin’s girlfriend, Amyra Dastur as Angad’s fiancée Neha, Isha Talwar as the wedding photographer and Saif’s love interest, Treasurywala as Ann along with Shivam Patil as her boyfriend Jason who calls himself “Jehangir Jehangir” have their moments of on-screen glory.

Overall with good production quality, debutant director Akshat Verma’s attempt at this noir comedy is engaging but the script material tries to sell itself a little too hard.

Troy Ribeiro

whodunit gets a rather likable shake-up on this occasion.

Do stay for the end credits to hear Rekha Bhardwaj and Ustad Rashid Khan crooning Sakhi ri. It’s a sobering send-off to a suspenseful and original journey.

Subhash K Jha