Janhvi Kapoor holds her own and sails through the film
In Fate of the Female Hero excuseAn espionage thriller directed and co-written by Sudarshan Sariya, the plot of the film is not too different. It’s a mess that goes from bad to worse. It’s hard at times to understand what in the world is going on with and around the lady, and in the film, until there’s a lot of murky water under the bridge and everything is in grave danger of sinking.
A bit of ambiguity might not be out of place in a film that relies on red herrings for mystery, intrigue and impact, but the film’s struggle for clarity and pacing doesn’t end with the diplomat-heroine caught in a career-threatening bind. In London, grapples with corporate blackmail and an assassination plot.
excuse It juggles a whole array of tricks and twists to heighten the tension, but it never succeeds in blowing away the cobwebs of clichés it gathers along the way. It never absorbs enough to invest the audience in the details and dynamics of the protagonist’s plight as he is painted into a corner by a scheming adversary.
excuseProduced by Junglee Pictures and featuring Janhvi Kapoor in a role that is physically challenging but has limited emotional bandwidth, it is not entirely devoid of significant elements. The film revolves around the young woman who brings to the table the main involved.
Suhana Bhatia, daughter and granddaughter of respected career diplomats, has a lot to live up to. He’s not a trained, quick-draw secret agent who loots for a fight, but a white-collar government official committed to playing by the rules.
Suhana is not a battle-ready operative in the mold of the RAW undercover agents we have encountered in Baby, Naam Shabana and Raazi. He does swing into action at the slightest provocation. This is not his job description.
Given the field she is in, Suhana is surrounded by high-ranking people from the diplomatic corps and the Secret Service Agency. Not only is she the only woman at the Indian High Commission in London, she is also No. 2 in the hierarchy, a position that some of the men she works with feel she is not qualified for.
Suhana has to fend off deadly enemies, unreliable allies and people jealous of her meteoric rise in the Indian Foreign Service. He must dig deep into his reservoir of resilience and enlist the help of others to overcome the crisis he faces.
Suhana’s appointment as India’s Deputy High Commissioner in London was received with suspicion, if not outright derision. He is determined to prove the doubters wrong. He is confident that he has it in him to carry forward the family legacy with distinction.
One wrong move triggers a chain of disturbing events. Even as her father (Adil Hussain) is named as India’s Permanent Representative to the United Nations, Suhana falls victim to a conspiracy due to an emotional dare she follows a high-profile embassy event where an important defense deal is offered.
He finds his career under a cloud. His father’s reputation is also in danger of being ruined. A city man he befriends (Gulshan Devaiah), a couple of RAW agents from the Indian High Commission – Sevin Kutty (Roshan Mathew) and Jacob Tamang (Meyang Chang) – and his official driver, Salem Saeed (Rajesh Tailang), the situation.
When Suhana is plagued by negative thoughts, a phone call from her father brings her back from the brink – literally. An entire scene is devoted to capturing the fragile state of her mind and the exact moment when she comes back from the brink. As for the film itself, the free fall never stops.
excuse Songless (except for a kawali in a dargah in the film’s climactic sequence). But can a Bollywood spy thriller do without Pakistan, especially the suspected terrorists who have taken refuge there? But, among all the hackneyed devices the film contains, excuse Courage to depart from the norm in some significant way.
Suhana’s tormentor says that the concepts of gaddari (betrayal) and wafadari (loyalty/patriotism) are traps laid by capitalists and national boundaries are just lines drawn in the sand. It is not excuse Center on these claims, but these are ideas that don’t usually make their way into Bollywood actors.
excuse It’s about spies and conspirators who want to thwart peace efforts between two neighboring nations, but it’s not intense or jingoistic in tone. Nation is invoked a few times but the war the hero wages is as much about the trivarna as it is about the family, as much about the nation as it is about personal ideals.
Apart from that, not only are Suhana having to fight bad guys from both sides of the border, Pakistan is also shown as a pacifist move by offering to hand over the bomb blast accused to India.
An Indian foreign minister (Rajendra Gupta) plays host to a Pakistani prime minister (Rushad Rana) – but there’s more than meets the eye. The visiting dignitary’s life is in danger – a secret that Suhana stumbles upon as she hunts for clues and tracks down the man who manipulated her in New Delhi.
Janhvi Kapoor is the linchpin. He is called upon to pull off a role that doesn’t demand as much as it needs for the film’s sustained centrality. excuse Not a breeze for him but he holds his own and sails through it without being too heavy.
His lead co-stars – Gulshan Devaiah, Roshan Mathew, Adil Hussain and Rajesh Tailang – are screen performers of proven quality. They slip into the skin of their roles without much fanfare. Meiyang Chang also has an important role, if brief, and does justice to it.
excuse Not exactly a washout. A little more liveliness and authenticity might have done it a world of good and helped it become what it had the potential to be – a spy drama with a difference.
