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for this effort Pooja Bhatt deserves applause. That said, the inexperienced
cast and director plague the film with many flaws.
The fast paced storyline does keep the viewer tuned in till the
end. Everyone wants to know how common people turn into suicide
bombers and Dhokha gives a possible explanation for that.
The story revolves
round a Muslim police officer, Zaid Ahmed Khan (Muzammil Ibrahim)
in Mumbai who finds out about a suicide bombing in the city. But
instead of interrogating others, he ends up being interrogated.
As it turns out, his wife Sara (Tulip Joshi) was the bomber in the
case that lead to the death of 20 people.
He is reluctant to believe in this allegation but after receiving
a mail from a fundamentalist group, he sets out to discover what
compelled his wife to take such an action.
Indeed the story is thought provoking and even disturbing but the
execution of this story is not up to the mark. For starters, Sara
who wraps a bomb around her body has her face in perfect shape when
the pieces are found. The only time Sara looks less than perfect
is when she is standing in front of a green Arabic font print cloth
holding a gun and confessing to the viewers about bombing. One doesn't
feel the fundamentalists would care enough to have perfect backdrop
to tell the world about the bombing while holding a useless prop.
It seemed more of an inspiration from the Osama Bin Laden videos
running on different news channels. A few characters disappeared
in the second half of the film, mainly the officer's friends leaving
one wondering where they went. These are sub-plots that could've
been developed to give the movie more coherence. Then an old flame
returns, which was not a required character to begin with.
Muzammil Ibrahim who has made his debut in Bollywood with this movie
is fairly decent for a first-timer.
Without much acting background, the model turned actor has performed
his powerful role well, except for a few places where his emotions
seem overdone with too many tears.
John Abraham, Bipasha Basu, Dino Morea and Arjun Rampal –
all four have showed their prowess as actors over the years and
all four started out as models. Muzammil Ibrahim does have the potential
to make it as an actor. For such a difficult role, had Pooja opted
for a more senior actor, it really would've made a difference. But
then again, the Bhatts are known for giving newcomers a fair chance.
On the other hand, Tulip Joshi who has no lines in the movie besides
the scene where she confesses her crime manages to make her presence
felt just with expressions. Her gestures and body language were
very good. Having done simple-sweet rom com films, it is a delight
to watch her experiment with roles.
Anupum Kher, who enters Dhokha in the second half is good and makes
the story more interesting by narrating the incident that led to
Sara rebelling against the country. That particular scene was also
brilliantly shot and is definitely one of the movie's highpoints.
Gulshan Grover was a good choice for the role of an anti-terrorist
police official and he delivers a solid performance.
Suicide bombing isn't seen in Bollywood films too often. Dil Se
by Mani Ratnam was also based on a suicide bomber and is perhaps
one of the few movies to be made on the subject. It was touched
upon in Fanaa and even Fiza. Even more uncommon for Bollywood is
the Hindu-Muslim storyline with a twisted angle. Films like Veer-Zaara
as well as countless others have shown Hindu-Muslim relationships
but those are stereotypical plots of girl-meets-boy, falls in love
etc. The reason why Dhokha stands out is because it is one of those
rare few films out of Bollywood that openly talks about religious
discrimination in the second largest Muslim populated country in
the world.
And even though Dhokha is neither as well shot as Dil Se nor does
it boast of popular actors like Shah Rukh Khan and Manisha Koirala,
it is a commendable effort because it is a daring film. Dil Se had
a safe and unachievable plan shown in the movie, while Dhokha dealt
with something that India has very recently gone through. Hindu-Muslim
riots are still a part of India, even if Indian cinema chooses to
ignore it as a subject.
In the end Dhokha makes for a decent film because it will definitely
evoke emotions in its viewers in spite of its shortcomings.
The music is passable, except for Shiraz Uppal's 'Roya Re'. The
song clearly stands out and is shot well too. Other songs are mediocre
at best and one doesn't even remember them by the end of the film.
Dhokha should be watched if only to see an Indian director's insight
into the possible causes of suicide bombing. That said, the film
does not encourage it but only tries to make one understand the
cause.
--Ayecha Ahmed
*YUCK
**WHATEVER
***GOOD
****SUPER
*****AWESOME |
