The makers of Neeyat may go hoarse screaming that their film is an original, but the knives are definitely out on this one, literally and metaphorically. Bringing a certain amount of freshness to the confined space thriller genre, but also relying on many a cliche in its narrative, the film borrows quite a bit from reality but sets its action in a hyper-real location, crafting a whodunit that tries its best to rise above contrivances, but ultimately — save for the neat twist at the tail — comes off as too stagey, degenerating into a by-the-numbers murder mystery.
Taking place in a Scottish wind-swept castle where a fugitive millionaire has invited all his frenemies for his birthday bash, Neeyat doesn’t have to work too hard to drive it in that Ashish Kapoor aka AK (played by Ram Kapoor) is modelled on Vijay Mallya. A motley crew, among which are AK’s personal assistant (Amrita Puri), brother-in-law (Rahul Bose), son and his new girlfriend (Shashank Arora and Prajakta Koli), lover (Shahana Goswami), his doctor and the doctor’s wife (Neeraj Kabi and Dipannita Sharma Atwal), his tarot card reader and trusted healer (Niki Walia) and a few others, land up right after AK makes a Karan Johar-styled helicopter entry. There is also a dodgy event manager (Danesh Rizvi) who gets rid of the service staff soon after the guests arrive.
Amid laughs and hugs, everyone — and that includes the audience — is informed that a storm is brewing outside and the picturesque Highgrave Castle has no mobile phone network. There is a tremendous amount of foreshadowing which director Anu Menon, along with her writing team of Advaita Kala, Girvani Dhyani and Priya Venkatraman, manage to pull off with some degree of success.
But the rest of Neeyat, despite its noble intentions (pun intended), is too conveniently mounted and executed. A murder/suicide soon takes place, with the guests now being joined by CBI officer Mira Rao (Vidya Balan). Mira is sketched as a cross between Sherlock Holmes and Miss Marple, whose deep knowledge and keen powers of observation lend her the ability to spout psychological analyses, reel off the names of chemical compounds and uncannily get the suspects to confess to their motives, each of which seems watertight but are, of course, just red herrings thrown in to dupe the viewer.
Neeyat harks back to the English manor murders we have relished reading about in our growing-up years. But save for a few inspired moments and the constant feeling of foreboding (despite the storm that never quite arrives in the way it threatened to), the plot is undercooked. As the body count increases, the characters start spilling their deepest, darkest secrets, some of which come off as incongruous and none of which feels organic.
As the nerdy, all-knowing Mira — who knows everything from effective techniques of deception to the symptoms of sunflower seeds allergy — mounts pressure on each player, each of who has been financially dependent on AK, Neeyat throws in the twists thick and fast. A few of them work, while most others come off as a little too convenient.
Neeyat also suffers from lazy and misguided writing, with almost every character being made to pander to a stereotype. There is the junkie son, the wide-eyed, much younger arm candy, the gay brother-in-law given to gossiping, and the devoted but frustrated personal secretary. Even apart from that, there is a feeling of familiarity that tinges almost every aspect of the film.
With Vidya playing Mira in a straight-faced fashion, it’s up to the flamboyance of the garrulous Ram Kapoor to spice up things a bit. The trusty actor delivers an assured performance and so does Rahul Bose, though his over-the-top mannerisms face the risk of tipping over into being caricaturish often. Neeraj Kabi and Shashank Arora are both given short shrift, while Prajakta Koli and Shahana Goswami try and do the best they can with their half-baked characters.
It is the final twist — which makes the audience go back and re-examine and re-evaluate everything that has transpired till then — which redeems Neeyat to some extent. We will, of course, not spoil it for you, but it does have shades of Vidya Balan’s own Kahaani, a far more effective thriller than this one. The twist, in fact, smells sharply of a sequel, predicting that there is more of a kahaani to tell here. We just hope it’s a better one the next time around.
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