User Reviews

A mockery of espionage missions. Wrong nd Irritating urdu pronunciations. Total waste of time.

If director Kunal Kohli and writers Vibha Singh and Hussain Zaidi are to be believed, the world of espionage is all about calling dibs on choosing an agent to infiltrate the enemy camp and using skulduggery to initiate said unsuspecting agent into a tedious process of extracting information.

Lahore Confidential is a startling 68-minute demonstration of how movies take their audience's intelligence for granted. And for a movie that's ostensibly about capturing the maneuvers of Indian intelligence, it displays none. So we see Ananya (Richa Chadha) bundled off to Pakistan-much to the chagrin of her mother-played by the superb Nikhat Khan-whose sole aim in life is to ensure her daughter gets married. "Isn't there anybody nice in your office?" she queries. "They're all nice," ripostes the harried daughter. This inane conversation is preceded by an equally laughable scene between RD (Khalid Siddiqui) in RAW and his (supposedly) fiery agent in Pakistan, Yukti (Karishma Tanna) where they're discussing the pros and cons of sending the unsuspecting Ananya to Lahore, Pakistan:

"She's done a desk job in a media company all her life."

"Exactly! None'll suspect she's our agent."

"RD, She's very emotional."

At the end of this exchange, overlaying another scene featuring Ananya's introduction, there's no response from RD, who's presumably scooted off to book the tickets.

Anyhoos, the reason Ananya's the chosen one is that she knows her poetry from Faiz, even if she's fazed by the prospect of relocating from India. In a completely comic scene, she tells RD, "When I told you I wanted a foreign posting, I meant Dubai or Singapore!" All of the chuckle-inducement is unintentional of course. There's more to come as Ananya's sole job in Lahore is to attend poetry-filled parties hosted by Rauf Ahmed Kazmi (Arunoday Singh ranging from likable to abruptly losing interest) whose sole job is to organize them. And because all high-profile officials throng these soirees-we don't meet a soul all through the movie who fits this bill, though-Ananya's to distill information from her host while mouthing obfuscating dialogues that have no apparent projectile. I won't give away anything when I say that in a mansion as big as the Queen's, they choose to end up in a water-body that they barely (no pun intended) fit in.

There are other Delphic signals that are thrown at you as way of friendly warnings to salvage your evening OTT time. The editing by Nikhil Parihar is cut-throat, and not in an effective way. Abrupt scenes abut each other with the grace of a dirt-road that rumbles and tumbles its peripatetic users without warning. Plus, the supporting performances are reminiscent of local TV shows whose budgets call for the apprehension of studio trespassers to act as extras-note Yukti's scenes with her team, as they fill in each other with dialogues that are rank amateurish.

And that's how Lahore Confidential rolls. With mind-bogglingly bad characterizations-Karishma Tanna's Yukti has only one way to squeeze information out: sex-the awkwardness spills into the usually terrific Richa Chadha's act as well. Every scene she's in looks like it's culled from auditions for the movie. At one point, she goes stiff all over, delivering her dialogue with a stunned epiphany, almost as if horrified by the prospect of this movie being ever streamed. (Spoiler for her: too late.) Director Kohli ends up creating a product that can be described in one word whose acronymic usage was supposed to be its high point. Raw.

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An art loving, poetry crossed, naive RAW agent Ananya (Richa Chadha) is sent to Pakistan as the Indian High Commissioner based in Lahore with the mission of finding out who funds terrorist attacks back home. Initially reluctant for the most obvious reasons, the spinster suddenly realizes that that every cloud has a silver lining, as she can pursue her research on young Urdu poets of Pakistan. Upon reaching Lahore, she meets another RAW agent Yukti (Karishma Tanna) who has positioned herself as a high society bombshell to scout for information. Yukti introduces Ananya to Rauf Kazmi (Arunoday Singh), an event organiser, a smooth talking, art loving hunk, who claims that he lost his parents and siblings in the Pearl Continental Hotel blast and lives alone in a Palace with an old man servant only. It doesn't take our leading lady any more than two meetings and a drive with Rauf to realise that she is bubbling with the pheromones and fall head over heels in love with him.

The naivety doesn't end here. Ananya, the otherwise super smart RAW agent easily volunteers highly confidential information to Rauf, and also helps him copy further data from the Indian Commission's computer systems. Each time, Rauf convinces her that he is actually eliminating people who are behind terror plots and Ananya complies as she dreams of a happy life in some overly, far away island where they will remain untraceable. By the time she is labelled a traitor, and yet given the liberty to make amends by the Indian intelligence, she does set the equations right, all by herself.

Lahore Confidential is a heap of rubbish, absolutely inconceivable plot directed by Kunal Kohli. That senior RAW agents can be so naive and vulnerable, is actually undermining the much vaunted research and analysis wing, as also the profession of these agents anywhere in the world. The story is super weak, highly predictable and barely engaging. Richa Chadha is unflinchingly unapologetic, unfit for the profile of a secret agent and her demeanor replicates that of impressionable college kids eager to learn something new. In contrast, Arunoday Singh and Karishma Tanna are impressive and execute their respective roles with elan. On the positive side, the backdrop of the city is beautiful and the running time of just 68 minutes is appreciable. We couldn't endure any more than this, for heaven's sake.

Rubbish total waste of time movie. It's only 1 hour 8min long but it felt like a 3 hour movie. No suspense or excitement in this film at all, but if you still feel like giving it a try go ahead.

What in the God's name was that? I don't even know from where to begin to explain how bad Lahore Confidential is. Ok so first up, the casting choices were poor. Richa is not at all convincing in the role of a RAW agent, she doesn't even look like one forget acting like one. Not trying to body shame her or anything but to at least portray an agent they could've gone with someone who was fit or maybe just athletic in general.

The direction was so poor that even the 1 hour movie feels like a 3 hour boring marathon, and this was supposed to be a thriller? Where was the thrill? The plot was utterly predictable. You'll predict the ending within the first 15 minutes of the movie. Avoid this one at all cost!

It's total nonsense. Wonder how can a normal human brain invent such a crap.

How on earth can Director Kohli choose Richa chaddha for this series. Worst series. 0 rating from my side. Please select good actors and not this type of over-expressing types actresses.

What nonsense has been made by Kunal Kohli

Richa chaddha was at her worst she was looking so fat how can she be eligible for a raw agent same as karishma she also over acted and spoiled the content of a raw agent

The movie did not had any direction, storyline ,editing, music and they kept opening for squeal which was not at all required and could had completed as the duration is only and hour

God bless them

What can you expect from a thriller that is just an hour long? that too from a director who is known for his romantic films. Lahore Confidential feels like a spoof of those espionage thrillers. Things just happen way to quickly not allowing you to settle down with either the characters or the plot. The film has less (actually zero) of thrills and more of romance and "shayaris" (after all, its a kunal kohli film). Plot is easily predictable right from when Richa and Arunoday's characters meet.

Performances are decent thats the only good point. Overall, its a one hour waste of your time.

Very bad acting by these people, specially Richa...Producer wasted story, Money and Time on this type if people. Who wasted viewers time. Zero star, zero recommendations.

My wife loved the movie, had a nice twist in the end.

Nothing looked serious like ISI & RAW in this movie. Everything happens so suddenly even climaxes too, scene after scene, even falling in love too, just like they were in a hurry to end the movie in an hour only. Also Richa Chadda has no attractiveness to get you 1% of the feeling for her romance, she simply looks like a fat half aged woman. And they gave her few bold scenes too which no one would bother to look at. In short waste of Time..

No where close to reality. Just agenda push. Richa chadha should have never done this

No suspense, action or thrill. Poor cast Poor acting Poor story Poor screenplay

Pathetic climax

Poor acting and nothing to impress... Totally saste of time and money 💰

Worst, Total mess The characters in the story are as unimaginative as the storytelling and dialogues, with the writers showing amateurish form.

Probably the worst patriotic film ever, with worst direction and story. Cast was poor and story was unreal. May the series get banned soon. Thank you.

Hypocritical Bollywood will continue to get a zero. It is ironical that given Richa Chadha's anti India left leaning political views, she is playing a desh bhakt. The hypocrisy of Bollywood will have to be called out. They continue to heap crap on us viewers and we will continue to rate them zero.

No need to watch n waste your time. Please go for a jog or walk instead

Perfect cast with great background scoring . Story finished within an hour time . No lagging .won't get bored . Super background scoring . Amazing cast and crew . Good acting as they immersed in their character role .

Ridiculously directed, edited, pathetic acting! Utter waste of time. I strongly advise against watching this movie.

Why on the earth even make such a thing? Stopped watching after 15 mins. Absolutely nonsense and zero story.

I would have given 1 star but 1 extra star only for the orgs like names of RAW, NIA and NSA being used in movie plus Indian Flag!!!

Rest it was not good!!