27_13.20 Nakshatra Review : Uninspiring Thriller

27_13.20 Nakshatra Review : Uninspiring ThrillerRating: 1.5 out of 5*

Starring: Shubh Mukherjee, Milind Soman, Sabina Sheema, Anupam Kher, Gajendra Chouhan and Rozza Catalano (In a Sp. App)

Director: Mohan Savalkar

Ajay (Shubh Mukherjee) is a scriptwriter waiting desperately for that one big break. He spends most of his free time playing video games. His fed up girlfriend Jiah (Sabina) finally drops him an ultimatum to get his act right in two months and become serious in life or she would zoom off to Australia forever. Just as the two-month period is about to get over, Ajay manages to sign a script for a group of newcomers. He writes a thriller for them by replacing their story of bank robbery with that of a theft of an expensive diamond necklace from a museum. The reason being he was impressed by one such real diamond necklace which he had gone to see with his Sharad Sir (Anupam Kher). The real costly diamond necklace enclosed in an invisible glass box can only open with two passwords, one of alphabets and the other, numerical. After his script is complete, when Ajay and Jiah's engagement is taking place, Police inspector Gupte (Milind Soman) barges in and arrests Ajay for the diamond necklace theft from the museum. The proof, the police has on hand being the closed circuit TV cameras in the museum that had captured Ajay frequenting the museum and spending a long time there everyday because of which he is the prime suspect in the theft case. Ajay's argument that it was all for the research for his film script is not convincing enough for the police. Ajay however, escapes from police custody as he realizes that the theft was all a part of the sinister plan by the film's makers and that they had carried out the theft by using his film script in which he had mentioned the two passwords, which had turned out to be the actual passwords! But as Ajay tries to prove his innocence, one by one each of the four producers are killed. What happens next as Ajay struggles to prove his innocence forms the rest of the film.

Debutante director Mohan Savalkar exposes his limited talent as a director. His amateurish handling of the thriller takes the film further down. The writers of the film appear to be living in some dreamworld where it is important for a scriptwriter character in a film to crack an internet password to write a good script! If that is not plain kiddish for you then you got to watch the film to see how easily and conveniently the writers and director have taken the audience's intelligence for granted. In the climax when the heroine is tied with bombs, the hero uses the same passwords that were used to steal the diamond necklace to untie her and he succeeds! Also if the main culprit was bumping each of the four producers within the film why did he not bump of Ajay before?

The only saving grace of the film however is the acting and the chase sequences. Shubh Mukherjee is better than his debut film Aasma. Sabina Sheema has screen presence and Milind Soman puts up a very convincing act as the tough nut police inspector. Anupam Kher is good as usual.

Music by Bapi Tutul is average and the item song shot on Rozza is so-so.

Nakshatra is a perfect example of cinema made taking for granted that the audience's intelligence level is that of a thirteen-year-old!

--Sampurn Wire