A not so original whodunnit

Neeyat

Hindi (Theatres)

Director: Anu Menon

Cast: Vidya Balan, Ram Kapoor, Shahana Goswani, Amrita Puri, Rahul Bose

Rating: 2.5/5

An exiled millionaire invites his friends over to his island mansion to celebrate his birthday. CBI officer Mira Rao (played by Vidya Balan) is also on the guest list. Sounds a lot like ‘Glass Onion-A Knives Out Mystery’, but ‘Neeyat’ is something else altogether.

This whodunnit revolves around Ashish Kapoor (played by Ram Kapoor), who has run off to London after taking a huge loan from Indian banks. Looks like Vijay Mallya’s life just got swindled.

Ashish Kapoor is accused of being the sole reason for the death of his employees (all by suicide). At the birthday dinner, he declares his intention to surrender to the police. He says he is not guilty and so wants to be acquitted after an investigation. He introduces Mira Rao as the CBI officer who will extradite him the next morning. Panic ensues among the guests as all of them have personal interests in his business.

A frustrated Ashish Kapoor jumps off a cliff (one of the guests claims to have witnessed this), after an argument with the guests, who he calls leeches. Mira Rao starts investigating, saying it is a case of murder and not suicide. Soon, there are multiple murders, leaving fingers pointed at each one of the guests.

The climax is almost like in ‘Athiran’ (Malayalam, 2018) minus the schizophrenia. With the dining table sequences, and hints of potassium cyanide (a salty substance) being used as poison, the narrative seems inspired by Agatha Christie’s ‘And There Were None’. The makers of the film have called it an original script, but the similarities are too many to ignore.

Vidya plays the role of an eccentric detective and delivers a satisfactory performance. Andreas Neo’s cinematography, accompanied by Mikey McCleary’s quirky music, keeps the narrative interesting. Watch out for an interesting cameo by Shefali Shah.