In the times when Indian audiences have been exposed to a plethora of murder mysteries/suspense thrillers, courtesy loads of entertainment available on the OTT medium, any new offering needs to be hugely exciting, if not entirely original. Of course, newer stories are always welcome but then as long as there is good entertainment in the offering and the old wine is also served in a new bottle, there aren’t many complaints.
In case of Dangerous though, you do feel that there is something really outdated being served. Yes, the story reaches straight to the point, which is great because this is what makes the maximum impact in suspense thrillers. However, when you gain a good enough idea of how the story will proceed within first 15 minutes itself, and then it is relatively easier to join the dots by linking the prologue scene with the rest of the tale that ensues, all that you hope for is that the middle portions would be exciting enough.
Alas, that doesn’t quite happen in this near two hour long feature film that has been split into a seven part series for OTT channel MX Player. Originally titled Aadat, the Vikram Bhatt written, Mika Singh produced and Bhushan Patel directed film has been rechristened as Dangerous for the home audiences.
Yes, the film does well in one major dimension for sure and that is by being true to its genre. It flows smoothly as a suspense thriller right through and doesn’t deviate, even though there are a couple of love story elements in there. Bipasha Basu, playing a cop, was once in love with a high flying businessman, Karan Singh Grover, who is now married to Ms. Moneybags, Sonali Raut. Now that Sonali is missing, and so is family friend [Suyyash Rai], Bipasha needs to solve this puzzle with fellow investigator [Nitin Arora] and another lady at the house, Natasha Suri.
With all the cards laid down at once, it works positively as well as well as negatively for Dangerous. First and foremost, you know that the perpetuator of the crime would be one of the many characters who have been introduced. Secondly, a couple of dialogues/scenes/moments are such that it doesn’t take much time to figure out the motive as well. You do hope though that the story turns out to be different from what you have imagined. However, such is the predictability of the plot and the narrative that the surprises are only far and few.
Nonetheless, thankfully Dangerous doesn’t veer into tangential territories and hence the songs are minimal, emotions are underplayed and the drama is usually kept high. Also, the background score (by Sharib Toshi), which is on the exact same lines as Vikram Bhatt films are known for, keeps the mood on track with the scenes that are being played. The production values too are such that though they may have been more opt for a big screen affair a decade back, for a small screen experience when it comes to the OTT release they are much better.
Eventually, you keep going with the flow and while Dangerous tries to be everything from a Hate Story to the Race franchise (it’s more former than later though), as audience you crave for that something extra that could well have made it a more edge-of-the-seat affair.
The good news though is that Bipasha Basu is back and she stays on to be her confident self. She just doesn’t seem to have aged at all and one just hopes that she is seen more often from here. Karan Singh Grover was quite playful in his earlier web series BOSS and in Dangerous, he keeps himself in check while playing his part. Sonali exudes oomph and also gets a couple of performance oriented scenes. Natasha is apt for the part that she gets to play. Suyyash has a reasonable screen time and he does well. Nitin Arora is appropriate for screen.
All in all though, Dangerous could well have been a well woven thriller for the small screen but then doesn’t quite reach there as it comes with a strong sense of deja vu.