A thriller with no intrigue

Ittefaq

Hindi (U/A)

Cast: Sidharth Malhotra, Sonakshi Sinha, Akshaye Khanna

Director: Abhay Chopra

Akshaye Khanna sips tea nonstop. But the cop’s piping hot sessions do little help to the proceedings which remain as damp as the rainy night when two people drop dead. And at the end, the supposed tubelight moment makes for the biggest yawn in the whodunnit.

Sidharth Malhotra, an NRI writer, is in town with his publisher-wife for a book launch. The next thing we know, she is found in a pool of blood and suspect hubby is on the run. He takes shelter in Sonakshi Sinha’s house, where apparently her lawyer-husband’s corpse just tumbled out of the closet.

He says she killed him. She says he did. Hence starts the blame game, which also marks the official beginning of the tea-sipping season.

Akshaye Khanna has a blast, sizing up his suspects. He makes for a gripping watch. Sorry, his objects of interest aren’t even remotely near.

Malhotra ups his game after a shaky start, but Sonakshi gets none of the tones right. As the bored wife devouring news channels (even when she is held hostage), Sonakshi kills the small pleasures that come in the form of feeble clues.

So whodunnit? Whocares? After a while, one stops guessing. And Ittefaq fails even with its borrowed thrills from the 1969 original.