Hacked Motive. Review on Neeyat

Have never seen a Murder Mystery so boring. Seriously!

The story makes you yawn. The Director needs to up her skills and finesse. The photography is not something to go gaga over. The characters are oh so laughable.

The plot goes like this:

Business Magnate, Asheesh Kapoor(Ram Kapoor) arranges a lavish Birthday Party(his own) in his opulent Scottish Castle. He invites a few selected guests who apparently are close to him. The Party is organized by an Event Manager whose support staffs leave at the last minute because of the imminent threat of Storm Irene. The Castle precariously sits on the edge of a cliff overlooking the sea.

The Storm lashes out on time. With it arrives an unknown guest, who is purportedly the CBI Officer, Meera Rao(Vidya Balan) from India, to arrest Mr. Kapoor. The multi millionaire hasnot paid his staff for the past few months which has led eight of his employees to commit suicide amongst whom there is a female named Devika Challam. Kapoor is on the run. He has left India with the help of thecountry's Industry Minister!

However, there is achange of heart and Kapoor magnanimouslydecides to surrender to the CBI Authorities - a mean surprise to his guests who are all financially dependent on him.Once Kapoor announces his supercilious intention, squabbles amongst the guests start. A frustrated and angry Kapoor walks out of the Castle. Everyone runs after him but he jumps off the cliff in an attempt to commit suicide. Before itcan be recovered the rough sea pulls the body unto its unfathomable bosom.

The clumsy detective, Meera Rao, now is compelled to investigate the matter as dead bodies pile up one after the other. The sleuth takes no time in guessing the hush-hush secrets of all the inmates which when revealed indicates that every one of them have a strong motive to do away with the detestable big gun.

Nothing new. We have seen such closet thrillers before. But this time it is different as after the opening scenes I cozily go off to sleep, wake up watch some more in the hope that the haphazard drama will come to an end soon enough before I do something disastrous.

Ram Kapoor, a fine actor, looks superficial in the role of the conning businessman. No wizardry is required to figure out who hereminds of - the real-life super rich runaway who sprouts up in the news off and on.

Vidya Balan, in an oversized snow jacket, looks dowdy with a permanently'what to do now' look and repeats again and again "You have a clear motive for murder" toall the others till you kind of grate your teeth out of sheer irritation.

Rahul Roy! Oh My God! That handsome not-so-young-man is relegated to a clown behaving like a whimpering idiot.

The super talented Neeraj Kabi looks disinterested and disoriented in his act as though he has suddenly realized that he has committed a grievous mistake of coming on to the sets.

I guess Shefali Shah must have done a favour to the newbie Director Anu Menon by appearing in a cameo for just a few seconds with two forgettable lines.

Neeyat(Intent) is supposed to be a miserable copy of'Knives Out' though I have not seen the latter. In spite of the director's vociferous denial, the movie is a badly cooked chips and chops off Christie's masterpieces and other Hollywood Crime Thrillers.

The only respite in the whole game of kho kho is that there is no long drawn out song and dance sequence. Only one background score with the oft repeated wordfarebi is passable and does not seem indispensable or adding to the mood of the drama. Oh! Of course! But where is the drama? Its only a patch-up narration ofa not even a time pass whodunnit because in the final analysis it's better to do away with such a comic strip than waste time over it.

And that's my signing off advice to all suspense lovers!