Gumraah Review: A gripping murder mystery

The film belongs to the director and surely to Aditya Roy Kapur – he comes up with a very authentic, convincing, and appreciable performance

Hyderabad: In about an hour, debutant filmmaker Vardhan Ketkar lays down an interesting base for a murder mystery. The suspects, the police are at it.

The premise: on a rainy night, Aakash Sardana falls victim to a gruesome murder in his flat. We have Ronnie (Aditya Roy Kapur) as the suspect. He is the sitting duck. A no-gooder who is proverbially good at everything including singing, dancing and not to mention stunts, is badly in need of money to save his pal – Chaddi (Deepak Kalra).

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Chaddi owes money to a set of goons who are willing to kill him if he does not pay back a sum of Rs 20 lakhs. His lookalike is a suave yuppy living life in style: Arjun (Aditya Roy Kapur). Arjun is a successful IIT grad with a start up and ready with his first project. He is also in love with Jahnavi (Vedika Pinto) who does not like coffee and prefers tea.

On the night of the murder – the look alike culprits are out in the open. The tardy investigating police team arrive at the scene of offence to be followed by the Special Investigating Officer Shivani Mathur (Mrunal Thakur). She along with her colleagues report to ACP Yadav (Ronit Roy).

With a picture of the assassin available, ACP Yadav gets Arjun arrested. Predictably third-degree methods are employed. Yadav swears to have Arjun in jail “this time”. So sure is he that he is set to file a charge sheet when the police arrest Ronnie for drinking, public nuisance, and attacking a police officer on duty. This leads to question as to who is the person in the picture: Arjun or Ronnie.

The challenge gets sharper by the first twist and the next turn. The storytelling must stop here. It is enough to say that the twists and the turns are interesting and absorbing.

The film maker ensures that he has the attention of the viewer by keeping to a minimal narrative. The running time of the mystery is just about two hours. The divide of establishing the characters, the murder, the investigation, the backdrop, and the purpose is well proportioned.

The film belongs to the director and surely to Aditya Roy Kapur – he comes up with a very authentic, convincing, and appreciable performance. He yet again pushes his case for consideration by bigger film makers. The audience who go to watch this low-key film are bound to be satisfied and happy.