INKAAR MOVIE REVIEW

With the increasing presence of women in corporate offices, they are at an equal footing as the men. But as an offset to this emergence of women, issues like sexual harassment, office politics, scheming against women, male chauvinism and the resulting ego hassles, insecurity issues are also predominant. Director Sudhir Mishra has taken these issues and set them in a happening ad agency by the name KK & Doyle.

The main protagonists happen to be two really attractive individuals, named Rahul and Maya, who initially start off as mentor and protégé respectively but slowly become attracted to each other more than mere bed-buddies. But as human emotions get mixed with office dealings, things don’t continue to be smooth between them for long and beyond a point Maya throws a sexual harassment case against Rahul.

As an aftermath, an inquiry commission is held at the office, chaired by a subject-matter expert, and the hearings are spaced out over a couple of days. The movie goes back and forth in time frequently as we are shown the initial romance between the two and later their frequent run-ins, politics, insecurity issues and ego hassles. How this entire commission culminates is the resolution to this flick.

The insanely handsome Arjun Rampal is at ease playing the glamorous CEO of the ad agency. He is majestic, authoritative and his voice is a major plus. The smoking hot Chitrangada Singh looks fabulous and dresses like a top corporate person would. She overdoes her reactions at times though. She also rips open her top and does a ‘bold’ act in one of her vulnerable moments in the movie.

The chemistry between the lead pair is intense with some making-out scenes thrown in. But most of the movie is devoted to the constant egoistic one-upmanship battles between them. The other characters in the movie are all minor pawns and they are all involved in the inquiry commission as witnesses and as people who testify. Vipin Sharma makes a mark among these actors with his sly entertaining remarks.

The workings of a top ad agency have been shown pretty well. The research and discussions involved, the jingles, designations like copywriter and creative director etc. add to the overall authenticity. But one wonders if the normal ad agency employee can have such a flashy lifestyle.

The film also has some nice dialogues spoken by Arjun about the difference between flirting and sexual harassment. Chitrangada’s dialog about being an alpha woman in the presence of so many alpha men is again scathing. 

Most of the movie happens indoors, either inside the hearing room or within a posh-decked room. Beyond a point you start feeling tedious as the hearings don’t seem to have a proper resolution in sight with both the protagonists giving their own versions of the story like in Akira Kurosawa’s Rashomon. Thanks to his single-minded pursuit of his subject, the director has inadvertently given room for some monotony and tedium in the normal viewer. The ending also turns out to be a cinematic compromise.

The music by Shantanu Moitra doesn’t have much room in the scheme of things save the odd montage song here and there. The cinematography is also pretty basic as most of the movie is set indoors and the few shots of Mumbai are also what we have seen in plenty of movies before.

In all, the issue visited by the director is very relevant and current but his execution isn’t razor sharp.