Film: Rukh
Cast: Adarsh Gourav, Smita Tambe, Manoj Bajpayee, Kumud Mishra
Director: Atanu Mukherjee
Rating: * * ½
Debutant Atanu Mukherjee’s first directorial effort is distinctive even if not completely alleviating. And this is a pain to bear mainly because of the crippling pace and un-inveigling suspense thereof.
This film which stars profound performers like Manoj Bajpayee, Smita Tambe, Kumud Mishra and inspired newcomer Adarsh Gourav tries hard to hit the high notes but inevitably fails because of the trite treatment at play here.
Living away from home in a boarding school, 18-year-old Dhruv (Adarsh Gourav) returns after hearing about his father Diwakar’s (Manoj Bajpayee) tragic passing in an accident. Unaware about the ongoing crisis in his family, his sense of well-being and self is thrown asunder when he realises that his father might well have been murdered. And the crucial clue leading up to that revelation happens to be a black car with a mystery driver at the wheel, following him around.
Breaking away from his mother, Nandini’s (Smita Tambe) protectionism, the troubled teen starts looking for answers. As the mystery unravels, Dhruv also begins to realise that what he always believed was true may not necessarily be actual fact. While he comes face-to-face with his father’s true personality, Dhruv gives shape to his own.
While the narrative obviously tries to garner a coming-of-age affect within its premeditated thriller format, there’s not enough depth within it to keep you interested and absorbed. There’s no doubting the sincerity of this first foray but it does seem a little too unnecessarily elongated and dragged out, to generate any excitement.
The script is didactic, dialogues fail to generate interest and pacing is in-affective. Even the eventual revelation comes across as too feeble. The trivial pursuit of ungainly thrills puts paid to what could have been an emotive study of a father-son relationship. Dhruv’s grieving is constrained by elemental pressures of the thriller format.
As a result, you never get to the point where you can empathise with the characters and their myriad problems. The background score by Anjo John has its moments but even that doesn’t help establish a firm foundation. This film may hit all the right keys but the sound it makes is not as harmonious as one would have expected. There’s barely anything here to leave a lasting impression!
