Samrat & Co. - movie review

I watched this movie without reading the reviews beforehand - which was good because its not as bad as they make it sound :)

Samrat Tilakdhari (STD) is a brilliant detective (heavily inspired by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's Sherlock Holmes) who is a bit jaded on not receiving any meaty cases off late. Like Holmes, he takes to heavy caffeine intake, smoking and street fighting, when not meaningfully occupied. His 'company' consists of his bumbling right-hand Chakradhar (CD) and his housekeeper/cook. Both are again inspired by Dr. Watson and Mrs. Hudson in the original work. 

Rajeev Khandelwal has taken up the challenge of creating a parallel of Robert Downey Jr. or Benedict Cumberbatch in Bollywood quite sportingly. He has copied some of their mannerisms, even pulled off the combination of intelligence and agility well. The camerawork, direction and cinematography borrows heavily from their films too. Its truly a "Holmage" to the legendary detective! If only they had not succumbed to the inevitable hindi film romantic angle and needless songs. Rajshri productions too has dared to branch out into the thriller genre (from syrupy family dramas) in an attempt to create a lucrative series - but judging from the boxoffice failure of this film, it may not be on the cards anymore.

A lovely and loaded heiress from Shimla arrives at Rajeev's doorstep and enrolls his services to investigate her family mansion's dying garden, her father's suddenly deteriorating health and some mysterious happenings. All of them are being attributed to a dead person's spirit hovering over the mansion but Samrat obviously does not buy into that and agrees to take on the case. The action begins when bodies start dropping with the old man dying first. There is even an attempt on Samrat's life but the heiress gets embroiled unwittingly which gives rise to an action-packed rescue scene. The characters are drawn well and contribute to the plot's complexity - three threads running independently have tangled it and Rajeev has to unravel it to get to the bottom of the mystery. 

All in all, its a good watch if one does not try to compare Rajeev with Cumberbatch or Downey Jr. Bollywood is not well known for delving into whodunits as a genre as its tough to serve with the usual masala for our audience - there is bound to be some dilution. Also, except for Rajeev, the other characters do not hold up their own in the movie though they are quite good at what they are supposed to be doing - most of them are not known to public. Rajeev has certainly done his homework well but somehow fails to leave a personal stamp on the character.