Let it remain a secret!

Johnson Thomas

Manish (Stoneman Murders) Gupta, once RGV’s closest collaborator, now an independent director, fashions yet another of those quasi-crime thrillers that he has been known for since his erstwhile RGV days. Rahasya liberally borrows from the true life murder mystery of Arushi Talwar, whose parents were perceived guilty in the media trial.
Foreseeing legal hassles, the setting has been changed but by and large the case and the end result remains the same. It’s a whodunnit but without the smarts of an Agatha Christie mystery crime thriller. Since the story is familiar, there cannot be much of a mystery either. The writer-director Manish Gupta transports the crime to a Mumbai suburb replete with relationship troubles, stereotypical police excesses and the usual formulaic lure–but minus the song and dance, thankfully.
The film opens with the maid Freny Fernandes (Ashwini Kalsekar) going about her chores in the early hours of the morning and cutting to Dr Aarti Mahajan (Tisca Chopra) returning from Pune in a call cab while her husband Dr Sachin Mahajan (Ashish Vidyarthi) wakes up to the shocking news that his teenage daughter Ayesha Mahajan (Sakshi Sem) has been murdered in the room next door while he was asleep. The interrogation and investigation sequences are typical of Bollywood, showing the cops behaving roguishly and exercising excessive methods to garner confessions of complicity. The lack of frills is welcoming though. Even Manish Gupta’s spare takes allow for some straight-forward connect. Unfortunately it’s the characterisations that come across as false. And the fact that the secret is out in the first frame itself makes the experience less than thrilling. The director strives hard for realism but cannot seem to shed the trappings of his previous experiences with Bollywood stereotypes. This is a sincere effort no doubt but not one that provides either thrills or mystery. The involvement of a CBI officer Sunil Paraskar (Kay Kay Menon), who has his own relationship issues to contend with, does add some complexity but the manner in which he arrives at the many conclusions leading to the capturing of the true killer, leaves you in doubt about the entire run of play. The spare treatment is welcome but the lack of intensity and tension are galling. Not much grip in this ‘attempted’ murder thriller!