Neeyat or Bad-Neeyat? Film Review

September 12, 2023 0 Comments

The problem with most new whodunnit, Indian murder mystery movies is that they lack novelty. They all look almost alike, drawn from multiple Hollywood films, widely and popularly streaming on OTT.

Here you can question my use of widely and popularly in the same line, however, that will not change the fact that Neeyat turned out to be a Badneeyat for me. Here let me tell you my views in bullets. 

1) Deja Vu, Over a top setting that doesn't just blend it.

Ok when you saw Glass Onion [one of the many inspired by films], you know it was made in a typical American, OTT manner. The island, the costumes, and the characters looked entirely from the land, part of the plot. In Neeyat, they looked mostly caricaturish. It is like the elaichi in your biryani or let me say- pasta ingredients inside the biryani handi. Ram Kapoor may be taken as an exception along with Prajakta but this can't be said for the rest of the cast. 

The actors were good and made for an interesting cast for me but their portrayal was below expectations or injust for their skills. And pl no matter how much we may have liked Shashank Arora in "Made in Heaven", he looked quite a misfit for a grown-up, estranged son. Most of them including Vidya Balan were wasted except for Rahul Bose who after an initial cliche appearance, looked quite true to his character in the film. 

Shefali Chayya was a fresh breath but then her role was hit and miss. What if she played Vidya Balan's character?

2) Vidya Balan's role looked less like a character than the scriptwriter's. 

She played the role of an impersonator, a CBI head, and from 1st scene, you can make out that she is far from the Officer and something else is cooking. On top of it, her finding answers to every single question in the room was far-fetched and again nauseating. You can easily guess that she has something to do with the lady in the news who committed suicide and the unleashing was less surprising but looked like a tick in the box. you know what I mean. Anyways, moving ahead.

3) Far-fetched Climax

I will not spoil for people who have not seen the film but if you have watched a few crime films, you will make out whether it was a murder or suicide. The truth is interesting but again the narration is just poor. It felt like they wanted to make a lavish murder mystery somehow, by hook and crook without actually spending time on craft and quality.

The movie indeed had a good story but the execution was more caricaturish than cherishable. It neither makes you think nor gives you an "Oh my gosh" moment at all. For me, it was quite a yawnfest and I wonder if my experience would have been different if I had not seen Glass Onion and Murder Mystery.

It is a one-time watch and the best watch on TV. 

Numerounity Rating 2/5