Sanjay Gupta started his career as a director with ‘Aatish: Feel The Fire’. He did experiment with a few genres once in a while and came up with a reincarnation based love story (‘Hameshaa’) and even produced art-house cinema under the banner White Feather Art House Films. However, a large part of filmography as a director and producer comprises of crime dramas. ‘Visfot’, a new film produced by him, is an official remake of the Venezuelan film ‘Piedra Papel O Tijera’, which translates to ‘Rock! Paper! Scissors!’ in English. The Kookie Gulati directed film features Riteish Deshmukh, Fardeen Khan, Krystle D’Souza and Priya Bapat in principal roles. The film has dropped on Jio Cinema this week.
Shoaib (Fardeen Khan) lives in the Dongri suburb of Mumbai and works as a driver for an app-based transportation company. He is an honest, upright man who is deeply attached to his mother (Sheeba Chadha) who is suffering from mental health issues. The other important person in Shoaib’s life is his girlfriend Lucky (Krystle D’Souza) who works as a waitress in a café. One night, Shoaib is having a casual conversation with his friend Manya (Nachiket Purnapatre) inside his cab. Manya, who works as a drug peddler for Acid Tai (Seema Biswas), asks Shoaib to work for him. Being the upright man Shoaib is, he refuses. Manya suddenly gets alerted as he finds the police patrolling around. He gets out of Shoaib’s cab hurriedly. However, before doing so, he leaves behind a jacket stuffed with drugs and asks Shoaib to keep it safely. Shoaib is against the idea but is left with no choice. Aakash Shelar (Riteish Deshmukh) is a commercial pilot married to Tara (Priya Bapat). Aakash shares a strong bond with his school-going son Paddy (Prithviraj Sarnaik) and tries his best to give his family all the materialistic comforts they need. The worlds of Shoaib and Akash, which are completely different from each other, end up colliding with each other quite unexpectedly.
As somebody who has not seen the original film, watching ‘Visfot’ was akin to watching a story unravel in front of my eyes for the first time. The basic premise (Irina Dendiouk and Hernán Jabes) is interesting and one feels intrigued to figure out how two individuals, who come from different socio-economic backgrounds and do not know each other, will affect each other’s lives. The screenplay (Hussain Dalal and Abbas Dalal) offers several unpredictable moments, especially in the first half. When you realize Paddy is in the car which has been occupied by Shoaib and Lucky, you wonder how the little boy ended up being in this vehicle. The flashback portion, in a very interesting manner, provides you with an answer to this. Aakash stumbling upon a truth about his wife, going through several overwhelming emotions and then, eventually confront her makes for an interesting watch.
Just when you expect the narrative to get more gripping, it dips. There is a point in between where nothing really excites you. The different events unfold in a predictable manner and things get repetitive to a great extent. The contrasting socio-economic backgrounds of the two protagonists and how it adds up to the conflict between them could have been fleshed out much more interestingly. The climatic portions reek of convenience and therefore, do not leave much of an impact. The entire track, involving the policemen, has been handled in a flimsy manner.
Fardeen Khan does a fair job at bringing the vulnerability of his character to the fore. The actor needs to work towards improving his dialogue delivery. Riteish Deshmukh does very well and showcases the different emotions his character goes through effectively. Krystle D’Souza looks great and performs well. Her character, however, seems to have been overtly glamorized for no reason. Priya Bapat delivers a decent performance. Nachiket Purnapatre leaves a solid mark as Manya. Sheeba Chadha plays a complex part with a lot of sensitivity. Seema Biswas is brilliant as Acid Tai. Purnendu Bhattacharya is very good as Inspector J K Fernandes. Satyajeet Kadam performs well as Waghmare.
The adapted screenplay is by Hussain Dalal and Abbas Dalal. The writer duo does a good job of localising the original material. Setting the film in Mumbai, a city of contrasts, was a good decision. The screenplay, however, becomes dull, repetitive and unexciting at several junctures. Kookie Gulati’s direction is good but he could have handled a few sequences, including the climax, much better.
The cinematography by Shikhar Bhatnagar is one of the highlights of the film. Apart from capturing the different landscapes well, the DOP also elevates the tension in some of the crucial moments in the film. The action sequences (Javed Karim) are raw and well-choreographed. The production design (Sneha Bhandare) has a realistic feel to it. The film has one song (‘Kamli Naam Piya Da’) composed by Amjad Nadeem Aamir which does not leave much of an impact. The background score (Amar Mohile) is good. The editing (Manish More) is decent. Many portions could have been trimmed for a better impact.
‘Visfot’ keeps you engaged but only sporadically. With an interesting concept like this, the makers could have put together a nail-biting thriller. The film, however, ends up being a half-baked thriller.