Cast: Arjun Rampal, Chitrangda Singh and Deepti Naval
Through the two odd hours that Inkaar played out on the theatre screen I kept twisting and turning, trying to recollect which film it reminded me of. Its boardroom politics, its corporate seduction and its weird love setting was engaging, but the thought that it seemed all too familiar just kept nagging me. Cut to, back in office, a simple Google search string ‘film on sexual harassment’ cleared my muddy mind. It threw up the name of a 1994 Hollywood film with Michael Douglas and Demi Moore called Disclosure. Before the fancy lawyers of Inkaar send me a defamation notice, let me make it clear. Inkaar is not a copy of Disclosure. It just has a similar theme, setting and a few similar scenes.
Unlike Disclosure, Inkaar adopts a slightly philosophical mood while playing out its story. But like its Hollywood counterpart, Sudhir Mishra’s film mainly highlights how sexual harassment cases can destroy careers, end relationships and of course bring out the worst in people. That Mishra attempts to tell this not-so-conventional story (in Indian context) is fantastic. Inkaar is a brave film. Not every day do the lead characters of a Hindi movie exhibit such grey shades. Chitrangda Singh plays the ambitious Maya who doesn’t mind sleeping with the boss. Not because she’s an opportunist, she actually falls for his charming ways. But that doesn’t stop her from cashing in on the advantage and speeding up the promotions. Likewise, Arjun Rampal plays the self- absorbed boss who believes flirting; passing sexual comments etc is cool corporate culture. But the edge that the settings and characters lend to the film, its unimaginative writing robs away. The ‘love’ angle just doesn’t work.
What works is the chemistry between Arjun Rampal and Chitrangda Singh. Not just their individual performances but their love-hate relationship drives the drama of Inkaar. Both Arjun and Chitrangda handle their characters to great effect.
But good performances can give you a watchable film, but not a believable story. And that is the big letdown in Inkaar. The film’s logic and the climax just don’t make sense. Not from characters who spent the last two hours (or seven years in case of the movie’s narrative) convincing you that they’d do anything to come out on top. A film that promises to hit you hard in the solar plexus, doesn’t even tickle you.
