Ittefaq is a worthy guessing game

Ittefaq

Direction: Abhay Chopra

Actors: Sidharth Malhotra,

Sonakshi Sinha, Akshaye

Khanna

Rating:

ALondon-based mystery writer, Vikram Sethi, is under pressure to deliver a bestseller. He is in India to promote his next novel, when his wife is found dead in a Mum- bai hotel.

The police — led by Dev Verma (Akshaye Khanna) — arrest Sethi (Sidharth Malhotra) after he flees the scene of the crime. But he escapes again.

Vikram is nabbed a second time, at the home of Maya Sinha (Sonakshi Sinha). They seem to have no prior connection, but her husband is lying dead in the house too.

The police are no longer sure what’s going on…

A remake of the 1969 hit of the same name (starring Rajesh Khanna and Nanda), this film is effective and suspenseful.

It uses Mumbai’s stormy monsoon and enclosed spaces to make the city seem both claustrophobic and eerily indifferent.

Debutante director Abhay Chopra plays with your mind by keeping the plot linear but in ways that suggest there’s a lot more going on.

The murders pile up, and there’s literally nowhere else to look — no subplots, no romance angles, no songs or fancy sets.

Are the murders connected, or is it all just a game of chance (Ittefaq)?

The conclusion is logical, but not predictable, so the film doesn’t fail you there either.

The one flaw is that the lead actors start out shaky.

Malhotra soon finds his feet; Sinha struggles with her part to the bitter end. It’s Khanna who holds the story together, with ease and finesse.

On the whole, though, Ittefaq works — it moves fast, keeps you hooked, and keeps you guessing.