Missing movie: Review, Cast and Director

Film: Missing

Cast: Tabu, Manoj Bajpayee, Annu Kapoor

Director: Mukul Abhayankar

Rating: * * ½

Debut-making writer-director Mukul Abhayankar’s psycho-suspense-thriller starts off with a deliberate faux opening. The attempt here is to throw the audience off-course. Unfortunately, by the time we know the truth, we are unamused by the trick played on us.

It’s 2.00 am, in the early hours of the morning and we see a couple entering a hotel together. She is holding a child protectively within a waddle of clothes while he is flirting with the pretty receptionist while seeking an upgrade from a single room to a suite. They are Mr Sushant Dubey (Manoj Bajpayee) and Mrs Aparna Dubey (Tabu), and their daughter Titli, whose face is conspicuously kept hidden from the camera, has been ill – running a fever, we are told. They enter their suite and soon enough Sushant takes his leave, ostensibly to pick up some food.

A couple of hours later when he comes back, he and his wife make out and then wake-up to an empty bed. The child is nowhere to be seen. The hotel Manager is intent on saving face, while Sushant is a little too bothered about informing the cops. But Aparna has her way and the celebrated Mauritian plainclothes detective, Mr Buddhu (Annu Kapoor) goes into his multi-lingual slapstick routine to get down to the bare facts.

The writing is blissfully ignorant and devoid of logic. The intrigue manufactured here is forced and doesn’t fit in at all. It’s the editing, camerawork and some of the performances that save face here. The device of the missing child used here to unravel the sneaky under-current in the psycho-drama falls apart even before the child goes reported missing.

Sushant appears to be more bothered about his secret liaisons than his missing child and that’s a revelation in itself. The inclusion of a suspicious peeping Tom only makes it all look obvious and deliberately underhanded. Then comes the subterfuge where the couple who initially match stories during interrogation, individually start revealing elements that were never really there to begin with. The camerawork is pretty as a picture given the beauty of the locale where the film was shot. Annu Kapoor is entertaining, though over-the-top in his attempt to boost up the humour quotient. Manoj Bajpayee as the amorous married man goes a little too far in his attempt to play against type- veering on the slimy and creepy rather than suave and debonair. Tabu though, is resolute and confident in her craft. She makes this outing much worthier than it deserves to be.