If you have watched a marathon, remember how the air feels when you hear - "on your mark, get set go ..." The adrenaline is pumping and everything stands still and at the last word the runners shoot off like a bullet from a pistol. Well a good thriller is like just that. You need to build up the tempo, let the suspense hang in the air and sprint at the right time to win. 

But the problem with 'Manorama..' it gets none of this right. The screenplay crawls at a snail's pace and you start yawning within the first five minutes! This is certainly no by-the -edge-of-your-seat thriller. It is actually a sink-in-your-chair-enjoy-your-nap kinda-cinema. Navdeep Singh's maiden venture leaves a lot to be desired in terms of story telling, because, even after 2 hours into the movie you are still trying to understand the central premise and the ten hundred thousand sub plots don't make it any easier. An amature detective caught up in the murky world of mirage was quite impressive when Roman Polanski shot it as China Town. Navdeep's version is very confusing on the other hand.

But it is not all bad, because, you have to be absolutely hopeless to butcher a classic like that and Singh is still a long way away from becoming Ram Gopal Verma. Some genuinely funny sequences, courtesy Vinay Patak, ensure that it has not been a complete waste of money. While the other performances are nothing to write about, cinematography is arresting. Buy a ticket only if you haven't been able to catch a wink at home.