'Bhagwat Chapter One: Raakshas' struggles to maintain momentum even with strong premise, performances

It begins with the disappearance of a girl in a sleepy town in Uttar Pradesh. Enter cop Vishwas Bhagwat (Arshad Warsi), freshly transferred and emotionally scrambled. Between chasing leads and checking his temper, the officer has his hands full.

The case quickly spirals, as more names are added to the list with each passing day. Finally, you have 19 missing girls, bound by one unknown connection and a common thread — a prostitution racket.

The no-frills build-up holds promise, as the crime thriller prowls shady alleys and traces hundreds of call records. But once it hits the courtroom, all the momentum unravels in a haze of bland legal proceedings.

Warsi’s Bhagwat gasps for breath inside the cop’s straitjacket, while his ‘raakshas’ (Jitendra Kumar) roams free with gleeful abandon, stealing scenes.

Bhagwat promises a girl’s father he will find her in 15 days. But his adversary, a ‘professor’ with an elephant’s memory and a knack for manipulation, keeps slipping through the cracks. If only the script gave his criminal genius a touch more finesse.

The rusty charm of Robertsganj helps this dark tale, inspired by true events. The film taps into the allure of small-town India to spin a story of love and cruel intentions, but the narrative loses urgency and forgets to keep the viewer hooked.