Despite his inconsistent record at the box-office, Vishal Bhardwaj is widely regarded as one of the best filmmakers in the country. The director, who started out as a music director, has been making a film every two years on an average. Though only a handful of his films have met with moderate commercial success (‘Kaminey’, ‘Haider’), whenever he comes out with a film it generate s a certain interest and excitement among a certain section of the audience.
After making a grand, big-budgeted period film like ‘Rangoon’, the director is back with ‘Pataakha’, a film about two warring sisters set in the heartland of the country. The trailer reminds one of the milieu Vishal’s early films like ‘Makdee’ and ‘Omkara’ were set in. The trailer tells us that how the two sisters are constantly fighting with each other. Without revealing much about the core conflict of the story, the trailer manages to show us the world in which these two sisters reside in and the kind of people they are surrounded with.
The film boasts of a stellar cast top-lined by Sanya Malhotra (‘Dangal’, 2016) and Radhika Madan, who has been a hugely popular television actor in the past. The catchy title track, sung by Vishal and playing in the background, adds to the fun. Vishal has an interesting way of incorporating humour in his films and going by the trailer, there seems to be no dearth of it in the film.
Though his last film was a critical and commercial failure, one is hopeful that ‘Pataakha’ is the film that will get Bhardwaj back in the reckoning.