‘Dhokha’: Enough to Drive You Around the Bend

Cast: R Madhavan, Khushali Kumar, Aparshakti Khurana, Darshan Kumar
Director: Kookie Gulati
Rating: Half star

A ‘Lashkar-trained’ terrorist hiding out in a Mumbai highrise finds himself in alarmingly close quarters with a woman who doesn’t seem to be all there. Is she really delusional, or is it an act? Is her husband as straight-forward as he appears to be? And what is the policeman on the job trying to hide?

The film wants you to ask these questions, as it goes about cutting back and forth from the flat from where the fugitive is making demands of money and a getaway vehicle, and the posse of cops down below, with a battery of TV reporters noisily standing by.

But within minutes of the opening, you are driven towards a completely different set of questions: why would a woman who suddenly sees a stranger with a gun show no signs of being scared? She sashays around, being flirty. Why is the terrorist so ready to fall for her? He makes puppy eyes back at her. What are those strange white pills hidden behind the toilet cistern she is on? Who is that woman her husband is seen cosying with?

And finally, why has this film been made? Who has it been made for? It’s enough to drive anyone around the bend. — Shubhra Gupta, Indian Express