Dishkiyaoon (2014)

Actually when you watch something without any expectation & when that surprises you pleasantly (to an extent), you feel like letting people know about it – somehow that's how i felt after watching this film.

This is exactly not a review but just some after-thoughts on the film Dishkiyaaon which indeed had some good moments.

The Pluses – To start with, most of us erroneously judged the film by its trailer. Unlike a regular mindless action thriller, the film actually turned out to be a gangster noir, that had more brains than many of such films being made in Hindi in the recent years.(Not that we often see noirs in Hindi cinema) With a non-linear narrative, the film actually engages you without spoon-feeding, connecting the dots in the end. The action sequences are stylish and the cinematography is superlative. The dark mood & tone of the film remains intact till the end.

Coming to the plot, the film deals with the conspiracies & complex dynamics of the underworld (which is oft repeated) but it is more of character driven (that's rare in Hindi). The psyche of the various shades of grey gets highlighted with the characters. There isn't unnecessary revenge drama or melodramatic angle forced in to attract crowd.

Sanamjit Singh Talwar seems to have a knack for dark gangster films without any diversions in form of preaching morality. Credit should be given to him to traverse an unsafe convoluted path to tell his story. The characters' graph moves in accordance to the script specially the protagonist Vicky Kartoos who from his neglected childhood learnt that Ganghiji's formula doesn't work in today's real world & following which how he started idolising the gangster Tony & gradually winning his heart thus becoming a part of the system. The dialogues written by Talwar are as brutally honest as the characters & most of the times they are impactful.Special mention to this one – Gandhiji said non violence but did anyone listen. If he would have said it at a gun point then everyone would've listened.

In the acting department Prashanth Narayanan (as Tony) & Anant Tiwari (as Rocky Chu****) overpowered all the other actors with their brilliant histrionics. Specially Anant Tiwari who was last seen at his funnier best as geeky Bunny in the superb zom-com "Go Goa Gone",stuns you with the cunning, manipulative evil Rocky. There are able actors like Rajesh Vivek, Dayashankar Pandey, Subrat Dutta, Harsh Chaya, Aditya Pancholi who feels the gap with their limited screen times. Sunny Deol as Lakwa is pleasantly restraint though his accent fluctuates.

The minuses –

Even though Talwar showed potential as a debut director he lacks playing his brush thoroughly & giving it finesse. The execution is unfamiliar and doesn't move in the set track,agreed but in many occasions the proceedings looks haphazard & forcefully convoluted. There are some loopholes in the narrative which gets camouflaged by the slickness of the proceedings. Add on to it, this film deserved a better leading man. Baweja did try his best & looked Vicky in many scenes but overall he lacked the energy & ability to carry the film on his shoulder. Moreover pitted against strong supporting actors he seemed a little let-down. Debutant Ayesha Khanna lacks any acting prowess. Though their romance isn't stretched out yet that came as a jolting halt thanks to their inability to emote.

And even within a limited 2hour running time the film looked a way too long. The script demanded some fine editing. The director and editor tried to give a cool neo-noir look but succeeded only partially. End of the day talwar is No Kashyap, but he has potential & hopefully can come up with a better film next time.

Having said everything, the film isn't that bad as many are addressing. Probably the Anti-Gandhian idealogy didn't go down well with few. Anyways those who love dark gangster films & noirs (like me) go for this one with limited expectation and you might not be disheartened. Don't expect it to be classy noirs like Johnny Gaddar or Kaminey but at least this one is better than Abbas-Mustan's clueless dark thillers.

Overall Dishkiyaaon had a distinctive gun in the hand of a sharp albeit green shooter, a proper frame to aim but somehow it brushed past the target. Finally landing into 6 (somewhat) out of 10 zone.