TALAASH

Director: Reema Kagti

Producer: Ritesh Sidhwani Aamir Khan Farhan Akhtar

Story by: Reema Kagti, Zoya Akhtar

Music Director: Ram Sampath

Star Cast: Aamir Khan, Kareena Kapoor, Rani Mukerji

Genre: Suspense Thriller

Release Date: November 30, 2012

The film starts with a car bumping off into the sea leading to the death of a film actor. What seems like a random road accident takes the shape of a murder mystery with Inspector Shekhawat (Aamir Khan) investigating the case. In personal life, Shekhawat is unable to come to terms with the untimely death of his son, for whom he holds himself responsible, thereby leading to a strained relationship with his wife (Rani Mukherji). Meanwhile he comes across Rosy (Kareena Kapoor), a sex worker who helps him make way into the case.

During the course of the investigation, the cop comes across odd creatures of the city’s seedy night-life — prominent among them is a physically challenged side-kick of a whore-house manager, who’s rightly named after the Turk hero Timur the lame (the excellent Nawazuddin Siddiqui). Driving at night, the lonely insomniac cop also regularly bumps into a fairly well-kept and elegantly turned out prostitute (Kareena Kapoor) who willingly offers him cryptic clues to solve the curious case. The said ‘talaash’ or the search, if you must know, is on for the whore house manager to whom the film-star had possibly passed on precious wads of cash before dying. You often bear in mind that motives behind all crimes, as for what makes the world spin in general, is either money or sex.

The film’s tonally dark and grim. Besides a few hummable songs, the background score is minimalistic. Edgier dialogue, by way of both humour and crisp gyan, could enliven a quiet movie like this – sadly that remains a weak link. Aamir’s own intense role is closer in character to Dhobi Ghat, and diametrically opposite to his part in 3 Idiots.

So is Aamir’s character, Kareena’s, Rani’s, Nawaz’s or someone else’s the killer? There is one way to find out, and it would matter only if you’re interested at all to sit around until the end. The film is intensely gripping, good enough for you to wait it out. At this point, that is all that we need to know; and head to the theatre, of course.