A thriller missing the thrills

ing take on the making of a female spy. It was meant to be taut, exciting, edge-of-the-seat.

But even Pandey’s screenplay is lackluster, with little of the heft of earlier efforts like A Wednesday (2008), Baby and Special 26 (2013).

The twists and turns feel predictable. And the spy bits would certainly have worked better if there weren’t an unnecessary Bollywood masala revenge angle thrown in.

As it turns out, the tale of tragedy, dark past, momentary happiness and yet more tragedy takes up the entire first half. And it’s a tale loosely written and overly melodramatic.

More disappointing still, our heroine is never allowed to take charge, and is forever being dragged out of danger by her colleague Ajay Singh Rajput (Akshay Kumar).

There are also lines that set your teeth on edge, as when senior intelligence officer Ranvir Singh (Manoj Bajpayee) tells Shabana: “Auratein preconfigured aati hain, they are born spies. Men need gadgets.”

Taapsee looks powerful and fierce in the action sequences, thanks to action directors Cyrill Raffaeli and Abbas Ali Moghul. But she seems oddly uncomfortable in the scenes that require her to emote.

The supporting cast of Danny Denzongpa, Bajpayee and Anupam Kher could have been used to much better effect, but sadly they are given little to sink their teeth into.