Confusion galore! Options

[Vandal]

Vikram Bhatt’s Inteha is about two step-sisters and a guy who enters the younger sister’s life. How the world changes for them forms the narrative of the story.

Nandini (Vidya Mallavde) is a well-known Radio Jockey who comes to Koti to take care of her stepsister Tina (Naushed Cyrusi), as their father is no more. Nandini is in love with Rohit (Anup Soni), but sacrifices her love in order to take care of Tina. But Tina hates Nandini, as she is the illegitimate child of her father. Tina has to tolerate Nandini as she has been assigned by her father earlier to look after Tina and decide on everything that Tine does. This includes Tina’s marriage.

Tina sees Nandini as an intruder into her privacy, but she finds relief when Ranbir Oberoi (Ashmit Patel) enters her life. Ranbir intends to start a Seven Star hotel in Koti, and he happens to fall in love with Tina at the first sight. Slowly, but surely Tina also starts liking him. Even Nandini, after the initial hesitations, thinks Ranbir as a nice guy. But a phone call changes everything, which reveals that Ranbir is a killer and to her surprise even the mystery caller who stays at hotel Blue Star is also killed. This further worries Nandini. She fears for her sister’s life. What happens hereafter forms the crux of the story.

Inteha moves on a single track, not messing around or diverting into irrelevant details. The drama moves at a snail's pace in the first half. In fact, the pace is so slow that it makes the viewer inpatient and restless.

But the narration gains momentum in the second half. The scenes between Ashmit and Vidya are well executed and send a chill down the audiences’ spine. The sequences where Vidya tries to unearth who Ashmit is by tracking his past are interesting and gripping, but the predictablity of the story proves to be a major disappointment. Once you learn who Ashmit is, the climax becomes boring and you know what will happen next. This takes viewer interest away.

A lot of questions are left unanswered. Like for example, if Ashmit knows that Vidya has managed to unearth his past, why doesn’t he eliminate her? And why does he wait till she completely knows about his past life and try to kill her after she actually manages to know that he has been possessing different identities. Also, when he knows that his job is almost done after he gets married to Naushed, why does he wait to eliminate her in the same fashion that he has been executing in the previous two occasions.

Nonetheless, everything comes down to a fight sequence between Vidya and Ashmit to the finish. It is as confusing as it sounds. However, the film boasts of some great music. Almost all the songs are gripping and barring a couple of them, all are situational. Humsafar chahiye, dekhna ek din mohabat ho jayegi and Dhalne laagi hai raat koi baat kijiye are the pick of the lot. The background score is a plus point.

On the performance front, Ashmit Patel has a fantastic voice (If he has dubbed it himself, which seems so) and has good looks. He looks extremely convincing in action sequences, but fails during romantic and emotional ones. He needs a crash course in expressions and dialogue delivery. Naushed looked much better in her first film Supari, but here she disappoints majority. Vidya Mallave makes an impressive debut, she shines in a well-defined role and definitely is one of the plus points of the film. Anup Soni is good in a cameo. The rest of the cast lend able support.

Vikram Bhatt has dealt with a familiar topic, but the film lacks his touch. A couple of sequences remind you that it is his film, but to a large part it disappoints. At the box-office, Inteha will not have the necessary impact, and the new cast will further dampen its prospects at the cash registers.