Neeyat is a crime mystery thriller film directed by anu menon.
After ages, i hv found a film which boasts of a vivid range of performances, from brilliant, to good, to outright bad. Vidya balan and ram kapoor helm the ship's affairs and its evident how upper in the spectrum they are. Kapoor brings out the deceptive evil masking the so-good-human within. In a sequence with Mira i.e vidya, both actors deliver one of the best sequences of the film. Vidya balan, portrays the awkward, shy and cunning individual beautifully. Shahana goswami, nikki walia and neeraj kabi are good in their respective characters. But i did not expect rahul bose to be such a disappointment. What a void performance from him, even shashank arora. These are hindi film's two most talented actors. They were just wasted. Prajakta koli, anyways is not an actor. She pretends but cannot act.
The writing of this film is haphazard. The characters have not been well defined. In a film, fleshing out characters is tough, but atleast you can do the bare minimum of making us feel through them. So many of them felt like caricatures than bloodflesh individuals. It also has to do more with the confused tonality of the film. At times, it forgets whether it wants to be a comedy thriller or a murder mystery. The screenplay has many major loopholes. Its highly inconsistent. You get introduced to the characters, interesting. You get to know them a bit more, the film loses its steam. Events occur, again it gets interesting. However, the climax and its twist is fabulous. Kind of saved the film's grace. And the cameo by one of my favourite actresses in the hindi film industry, has to be one of the brilliant moments of the film.
The music kind of represents the scottish piano and tunes. Its also meant to evoke laughs but fails miserably. You laugh merely at one or two sequences. However, the song is very jazzy and good. Went very well with the cold, bitter mood of the film.
The cinematography needs to be praised. Its aesthetically, very pleasant. The scottish hills, the seas, the lush greenery, it itself is a scene of joy. The camera successfully contrasts the outer happiness and the inner dreary nature of the castle and its characters.
I wish the film had some better directed scenes. At one point, when a chase ensues, the storm suddenly stops as if it reveres the characters and says "hold on, let them do their bit." Another instance being, a stabbing scene where it felt more like the pumpkin wanted to be stabbed by the knife. Its a metaphor for the scene and not a spoiler, so please. I wish it was a bit funny and took itself lightly, coz self aware and self obsessed are entirely two different things.