All the Flirtatious Men/Women...BEWARE!. Review on Inkaar

Times are changing and women are entering into fields and taking over positions that were predominantly male bastions. Naturally, the alpha male is bound to feel slightly uncomfortable especially when women get the charge of ordering them and even saying ‘no’ (or rather doing ‘inkaar’) to their advances. And when the stakes go too far or limits are crossed, repercussions can be disastrous. But who decides that a particular person has crossed a line? Inkaar deals with complicated matters like these, and throws light on the sexual harassment in workplaces. It neither offers any concrete answers nor makes judgment as to who’s right and wrong. It attempts to be as real as it can be and be innovative and while that brings lot of freshness to the film, somehow the film fails to work as a whole.

The story of the movie: Maya Luthra (Chitrangda Singh) is an aspiring advertising professional who one day bumps into Rahul Verma (Arjun Rampal), CEO of one of the biggest advertising agencies, KK & Doyle. He enrolls her, moulds her and makes her confident enough for the tough advertising job. 7 years later, Maya, now the National Creative Director of KK & Doyle, files a sexual harassment complaint against Rahul. A committee is set up by the management to decide whether the accusations of Maya are sufficient to nail Rahul. But as Rahul defends his stand and Maya talks about what she went through in the seven long years, it becomes difficult to conclude who’s right/wrong and also who’s lying or revealing the true facts. The only thing which is clear is that – only one will emerge clean, or rather the winner. Who will it be?

Inkaar succeeds because it deals about office politics primarily, and not many films have been made on this aspect, at least in Bollywood. Also, a large section of moviegoing audiences are working professionals, who are bound to relate with the goings-on. At the same time, film touches the sensitive and quite ambiguous issue of sexual harassment and how it becomes difficult to prove the same. After all, what’s flirting to me can be harassment for someone else. A gentleman may address a friend/colleague as ‘Hey sexy!’ or ‘Hey beautiful!’, in a harmless fashion but it might not be perceived in the same way by the opposite person. Thirdly, the film makes the viewer’s go back and forth with their opinion. Same scenes after a point are shown through different perspective or aided with a backstory and suddenly one might change his/her stand about the protagonist(s). One doesn’t get to see something like this in a Bollywood film often and this is surely one of the brownie points of the flick.

Inkaar is more or less engaging with tons of flashback (and non-linear at times) and yet, everything is crystal clear and it becomes very easy to comprehend for viewers as to what’s going on. However, the film does start dragging after a point. The biggest drawback of the film is climax. It does startle viewers but somehow not presented well. In the end, one doesn’t feel any sympathy for the character(s). Hence, despite having so many strong points going in favour of the film, Inkaar becomes an average fair because of the finale.

There are absolutely no complaints with the performances. Both Arjun Rampal and Chitrangda Singh deliver stellar performances. Arjun Rampal is brilliant to the core. He looks dashing, suave and does total justice to his character. The actor has been consistent with his performances but sadly, lacks the superstar pull, akin to the Khans. Hence, his performances in films like Chakravyuh went unnoticed and very unfortunately, Inkaar too is going the same way.

Chitrangda Singh does even better. It was no easy role by any standards. After all, the right amount of vulnerability, oomph and arrogance was required and Chitrangda fulfills all the criteria and comes out with yet another magnificent performance. Deepti Naval (Mrs Kamdar) was in her element. Asheesh Kapur (Praful) stands out. Sujata Sehgal (Kavita), Shivani Tanksale (Nimmi), Vipin Sharma (Gupta). Viveck Vaswani and Mohan Kapur were impressive in their small roles. It was a surprise to see yesteryear actress Rehana Sultan in the film but she’s there only for a scene. Kanwaljeet Singh (Rahul’s father), Jan Bostock (John), Kaizad Kotwal (KK), Sandeep Sachdev (Tarun) and all others put their best foot forward. Saurabh Shukla was adorable and does a Yashpal Sharma in his, for the lack of a better word, item number.

Shantanu Moitra’s songs are soulful but in the film, don’t contribute much. Maula Tu Malik is the only song that stays. Background score is effective. Sachin Krishn’s cinematography is outstanding! Just observe how the zoom-in/zoom-out and other techniques are smartly done by the lensman. Sets and real-life locations used add an authentic touch. Manoj Tyagi’s story (inspired from real life events) was surely a great ingredient for a film. Sadly, the script and Sudhir Mishra’s direction doesn’t do justice though the director is exceptional in the aforementioned portions of the film. However, the climax is too disappointing which takes away the charm created by Mishra in the earlier portions.

Some of the best scenes:

1. The introduction of the film

   
   




2. All scenes of the committee discussion

   
   




3. Rahul-Maya in Bangkok

   
   




4. Rahul-Maya’s outburst at Maya’s house (terrific!)

   
   




5. The intermission point

   
   




6. Maya at Rahul’s place

   
   




7. Final round of discussion in KK’s cabin

   
   




8. The very final scene of the film

   
   

On the whole, Inkaar touches on some sensitive issues and indeed does a great job with the treatment, non-linear narrative et al. But the climax acts a downer and in the end, one comes out feeling almost nothing for the characters that dominated the screen for 129 minutes. Worth watching only for Arjun-Chitrangda, the contemporary feel and for some unconventional filmmaking techniques!

My rating-** ½