In the desert nothing is what it seems.
I must say the film remains honest to this Tagline through the whole of its 135 minute runtime. For nothing and no-one in the story really is as it seems, be it a seemingly committed and innocent looking social-worker, a helpless girl brought up in an orphanage, a simple looking case of post-marital affair of an influential politician, or the corruption in the construction of a canal. Director Navdeep Singh brings the concept of Roman Polanski's Chinatown to Lakhot, a remote small town of Rajasthan situated in the desert, and presents a marvellous adaptation of the theme. Satyaveer (Abhay Deol), a govt. engineer who also writes detective stories and novels, is living his usual course of boringly simple and event-less life unless contacted by a lady(Sarika), who claims to be the wife of the irrigation minister and ex-maharaja of Lakhot P.P. Rathore(Kulbhushan Kharbanda), and asks him to spy her husband so as to confirm her doubts regarding his post-marital affairs, for a sum of money. Satyaveer agrees to this and from here begins a series of murders, assaults, and disturbing revelations. As the film proceeds, things and people start appearing in their nude reality, and satyaveer finds himself trapped in this bizarre tale of selfishness and immorality.
The actors have all given the best of their performances, including Gul Panag(Nimmi, Satyaveer's wife), Vinay Pathak(Brij Mohan, Satyaveer's brother-in-law), and Nowazuddin(Chaila)and Jogi(Fauji) the two rogues who appear for a short time and and yet give commendable performance . The background score is slow,diverse, and powerful, and the direction is excellent; though the film appears slow at some moments. I must say it is a marvellous experiment in the age of boringly monotonous and repeatedly made big-budget, love-story cum family-dramas and stupid looking action films. 8 out of 10.
I must say the film remains honest to this Tagline through the whole of its 135 minute runtime. For nothing and no-one in the story really is as it seems, be it a seemingly committed and innocent looking social-worker, a helpless girl brought up in an orphanage, a simple looking case of post-marital affair of an influential politician, or the corruption in the construction of a canal. Director Navdeep Singh brings the concept of Roman Polanski's Chinatown to Lakhot, a remote small town of Rajasthan situated in the desert, and presents a marvellous adaptation of the theme. Satyaveer (Abhay Deol), a govt. engineer who also writes detective stories and novels, is living his usual course of boringly simple and event-less life unless contacted by a lady(Sarika), who claims to be the wife of the irrigation minister and ex-maharaja of Lakhot P.P. Rathore(Kulbhushan Kharbanda), and asks him to spy her husband so as to confirm her doubts regarding his post-marital affairs, for a sum of money. Satyaveer agrees to this and from here begins a series of murders, assaults, and disturbing revelations. As the film proceeds, things and people start appearing in their nude reality, and satyaveer finds himself trapped in this bizarre tale of selfishness and immorality.
The actors have all given the best of their performances, including Gul Panag(Nimmi, Satyaveer's wife), Vinay Pathak(Brij Mohan, Satyaveer's brother-in-law), and Nowazuddin(Chaila)and Jogi(Fauji) the two rogues who appear for a short time and and yet give commendable performance . The background score is slow,diverse, and powerful, and the direction is excellent; though the film appears slow at some moments. I must say it is a marvellous experiment in the age of boringly monotonous and repeatedly made big-budget, love-story cum family-dramas and stupid looking action films. 8 out of 10.