Who is the busiest actor in the Malayalam film industry??? If it is on the basis of shuttling between languages, then the answer to that would most likely be DQ. After the resounding success of "Sita Ramam", DQ's next release in Bollywood was in none other than R Balki's "Chup: Revenge of the Artist". They had a pretty innovative promotion strategy whereby free screenings were held for the audience in ten cities three days prior to the release. The interesting aspect of this was that the official critics were given access to the movie only on its formal release date. So will DQ strike gold???
The gruesome murder of a movie critic had shook the city & Arvind Mathur (Sunny Deol) of Crime Branch was put in charge of the investigation. This was followed by an even more horrific murder of another person, who also happened to be a critic. The modus operandi seemed to indicate that both the murders were committed by the same person & it all pointed towards a psychopathic serial killer. But who was it & what was the reason for targeting critics???
Balki is a director who needs no introduction & I have been a fan of his celluloid creations since his debut venture "Cheeni Kum". As always, he has penned the script with Raja Sen & Rishi Virmani helping out with the screenplay. It was indeed a gripping thought and the character arc given to DQ made it engrossing without being artificial or unnecessarily eerie. The investigation part handled by Sunny's character was also neatly done (except for a Gadar type sequence which was laughable) though the Pooja's criminal psychologist role failed to impart any significant effect. Eventually, the movie meanders towards a tame end. On the technical side, Vishal Sinha deserves praise for the lighting & visuals as that did add to the mood while Amit Trivedi's music was also fine.
DQ has done a fine job & I would surely rate it as one of his best performances. This is his third Bollywood project & likely to pave the path for more. Giving him company was Shreya Dhwanthary who is a familiar face in web series like "The Family Man", "Scam 1992" etc. She has done a decent job though her emotional scenes didnt quite hit the mark. As for the rest, Sunny Deol & Saranya Ponnvannan did their parts well while Pooja Bhatt was rather average.
Verdict: An interesting thought that works well for large parts except towards the last segment where it felt rather rushed & not as impactful as we would expect. In short, you may give it a try keeping in mind that it a slow paced flick!!!
Rating: 2.25/5
Regards...Ben
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