Ittefaq -Movie Review

Before I begin to review Bollywood’s latest release, ‘Ittefaq’, I would like to mention that I have not seen the 1969 original nor read its plot on the net. This Sonakshi Sinha – Siddharth Malhotra – Akshay Khanna starrer is a thriller, spread over three days, where the mystery behind twin-murders is solved. While the hype created during promotions touted the movie to be a crisp, edgy and a flawless thriller, sadly, it meanders from its intent a bit.

The movie is about a writer, Vikram Sethi (played by Siddharth Malhotra), who is suspected of murdering his British-wife, Catherine. Fearing being falsely implicated in his wife’s murder, Vikram flees from the custody of the cops and ends up getting implicated in another murder – of a lawyer, Shekhar, while trying to seek help from Shekhar’s wife Maya (played by Sonakshi Sinha). The high-profile case is handed over to Dev Verma (played by Akshay Khanna) for investigation. The rest of the story oscillates between Vikram’s version, Maya’s version and as Dev puts it – the actual version.

Even though it has a crisp run-time of about 1 hour and 47 minutes, Ittefaq seems quite long due to its uneven pacing. Putting this minor issue aside, Ittefaq starts on a promising note. The first half is well made and builds up a good case. My major concern in the narrative was the interrogation part. The director and the screenplay writers opt for a narrative that keeps oscillating between each of the main suspect’s interrogation – without letting any of the suspect complete his side. This seems a little contrived, given the fact that police interrogation never stops in the middle – they take a complete version. My second major concern is the glaring loopholes – quite a few which any person with normal IQ could find and solve the case in a much better way.

Having said that, the movie still makes for a good one-time watch because of its ensemble cast, dark cinematography and gritty background score. Akshay Khanna proves what a seasoned actor can bring to the table. As the cop, he plays his shades undertone, never really overdoing it. I have always felt Siddharth Malhotra was the weakest among the three SOTY debutantes, but with Ittefaq, he seems to be finally getting into the groove. That one scene in the jail where he tries to eat, is a testament of how he is growing as an actor. Sonakshi Sinha is fine  - may be because she has played these demure roles too often, so I did not find anything new from her. The supporting cast, especially constable Tavde adds quite a few laughs (I tried getting their names, but sorry, google didn’t help)

On the whole, Ittefaq could have been a better film had they worked on the two major issues that I pointed out. But if the movie still manages to be a hit, I would not call that to be entirely ‘Ittefaq se’ 😉

My Rating: 2.5/5