Issaq Review

One Line Review: An inane chronicle of love inundated with amnesiac action-drama dipped in Banarasi flavor.

Positive Points: Excellent cinematography of Banaras, Powerful performance by Ravi Kishan.

Negative Points: Disparaging screenplay, A series of ambiguity goes on and on with grungy direction, Poor performance by Prateik Babbar, Atrocious fighting scenes.

Plot: The story kick-offs in the holy land of Banaras. Two high-profile families of squabbling politicians, Mishra (Sudhir Pandey) and Teetas Kashyap (Ravi Kishan) live in Banaras. The local minister (Yuri Suri) attempts to maintain peace among the two families, who are constantly at loggerheads with each other. However, the things start going haywire, when Rahul Mishra (Prateik Babbar), the son of Mishra meets Bachhi Kashyap (Amyra Dastur), the daughter of Kashyap. Frequent meetings incepts a feeling of infatuation between the two and soon it turns into real love between battle-hardened Rahul and Bachhi. Both of them gets diluted in a heartfelt relationship, difficult to give up.

Rahul and Bachhi get married in a clandestine manner, without letting anyone know about it. And then, a series of bullets and murders start mushrooming.

Will Rahul and Bachhi come out of all this proving their true love?

Will these families can turn friends ever?

Direction And Other Technical Aspects: After 'Raanjhanaa', this is the second love-tale picturised at the backdrop of sacred city of Banaras. Though the director Manish Tiwari concepted a promising idea, the narration style of the movie literally makes it a rocket science to understand it. The film aims at depicting the eternal romance like Romeo and Juliet, but it totally fails in portraying so. This is because the depth at which the feelings of the character for each other should have illustrated is not visible at all. This love story just remains as the crux of the film without any soul inside. The events in the film proceed like the playing cards arranged back-to-back and can make one unable to elucidate what is exactly happening in the story.

Without narrating any past-events, the family rivalries are shown in the film. The excessive degree of violence, especially the Laal Salaam gang part, takes the film into 'don't watch it' zone. The revenge matrix tags the story as a bundle of muddiness. Also, the relationship of the characters with each other can leave the story like a tangled puzzle for the viewers. The screenplay contains a galore of ambiguities and the bloodshed game between the two families make the movie sink. Still, the shocking end of the film can put one into tizzy. All these aspects mirror the flaws in the direction. The first half of the film takes the entire time to character introduction and establishment of the plot, thereby making it boring and keeps popcorn crackling. However, the movie catches the grip in the second half part.

The cinematography part of the film is excellent, as the essence of Banaras is well-captured in it. Background score can be labelled as average.

Performance: The blue-eyed lad, Prateik Babbar is completely apractic to the character of Rahul, due to his wrong accents at certain points, lack of genuine facial expressions and overall appearance. This young lad struggles hard to essay his part and eventually loses the edge in his performance. The newbie Amyra Dastur has played her part well, as a trepid girl. Together, the lead pair looks cute.

Ravi Kishan leaves a lasting impression with his powerful performance, like always. He makes his screen presence feel. Rajeshwari Sachdev, though with minimum dialogues and lots of facial expresssions, well-portrays the character of Paro. One can remember Evelyn Sharma for her dumb blonde role. The seasoned actor like Makarand Deshpande blends well in the colors of criminal-turned-saint. The veteran actress Neena Gupta, once again proves her versatility as hapless 'Amma' in the film.

Sudhir Pandey, though appears sheer for fraction of minutes, does his part conveniently.

Music: The music composed by popular Sachin-Jigar duo is good. Apart from the track, 'Issaq Tera', the other tracks like 'Aag Ka Dariya', 'Bhole Chale', 'Enne Unne', 'Bhagan Ki Rekhan Ki', seem to get lukewarm response. Still, the way the songs are picturised in Banarasi flavor, can make one forget the lyrics and music!

Final Verdict: All the action and love-story filled ingredients stuffed in the film can just make it a high-octane series of bullets and roses. The film can be tagged as a galore of disarray, which really can make one brainstorm to understand the film. In a nutshell, the movie is a complete no-no to waste the time on!