Director Vardhan Ketkar’s Gumraah—a remake of 2019 Tamil film Thadam—is at best, a crime-thriller that fails to deliver on a fairly interesting premise simply because it doesn’t give its audience due credit. At worst, it is a drama that gets lost early on and ends as a kaleidoscope of cliches.
Starring Aditya Roy Kapur in a double role –– as sweet and successful boy-next-door Arjun Sahgal and playful, conniving gambler Sooraj Rana—the film wields a number of cop-drama tropes. A subpar investigation, a befuddled cop who is more interested in face-timing his flavour of the month as opposed to solving the crime, a glaring suspect in the form of Kapur’s Sooraj, an ACP with a vendetta, and of course –– the feisty, determined woman cop who will go to any lengths to solve the case.
CID comedy, cookie-cutter romance
Mrunal Thakur, known for her roles in Super 30 (2019) and John Abraham starrer Batla House (2019), gives an adequate performance as Shivani. With a ponytail that never budges and an expression that is always severe, her character is simply devoid of substance. Instead, she becomes a template for a female police officer, striving to make it in life. Shivani should technically have been the mover-and-shaker behind the plot but she just hasn’t been written as such.
One can’t help but think of slow-burn, gritty Hollywood crime dramas like Kate Winslet’s Mare of Easttown (2021) and Amy Adams’ Sharp Objects (2018) that dive deep into the backstories and motivations of their crime solvers. This may not be the objective of Gumraah, which wants to rest on the laurels of Kapur –– even as he is yet to prove his mettle as an actor after early successes like Yeh Jawaani Hai Deewani (2013) and Aashiqui 2 (2013).
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Shivani admonishes her fellow cops for their incompetence, as they give one-liners that occasionally provide comic relief. Some of them are timed well. Some have the unintentional humour of obviousness (think CID). “Yeh to carbon copy hai (This is a carbon copy)” ACP Yadav, played by an uptight Ronit Roy, is told. Roy is lost in the film, courtesy one-dimensional characterisation.
Kapur is known for being an eye candy, and it is what he excels at. His characters have been crafted to place his good looks at the forefront. As Sooraj, he excels slightly more. There is something about his devil-may-care attitude that suits Kapur better.
The good boy Arjun and his romance with Janhavi, played by Vedika Pinto, is vanilla in every way. Arjun is a civil engineer and Janhavi is a film reviewer. They meet while working in Gurugram’s DLF Cyber Hub and that is where their entire relationship unfolds. He courts her, she responds, and they fall in love—all in the same place. Apart from a half-baked airport scene, which lacks the ‘will he make it’ suspense and the joy, it is a cookie-cutter corporate love.
The screenplay, written by Sumit Arora, fails to succeed as a cop-drama because its twists, while many in number, aren’t particularly well constructed. It doesn’t allow the audience to think for themselves and instead doubles down on every clue. It feels as though the makers are catering to an unintelligent audience, which is seldom the case these days. The mystery itself, of identical twins charged with the same crime, is said to be based on real cases. The film ends with listing a bunch from countries across the globe.
Kapur fails to dazzle despite a script that helps his case. It has been years since he won hearts for his acting, and one wonders when the time will finally come.
(Edited by Ratan Priya)