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By Taran Adarsh, October 29, 2004 - 11:21 IST
KARAMCHAND meets BASIC INSTINCT.
Pankuj Parashar merges his immensely successful detective series KARAMCHAND and the Michael Douglas - Sharon Stone starrer BASIC INSTINCT and the result is INTEQAM - THE PERFECT GAME.
Unfortunately, this taal-mel is not as nail-biting as KARAMCHAND, nor is it as exhilarating like BASIC INSTINCT. An interesting premise loses its sheen mainly due to sloppy writing [Yunus Sajawal] and to an extent, due to Parashar's execution.
In a nutshell, INTEQAM - THE PERFECT GAME, Parashar's latest offering, emerges as an inferior clone!
Avantika [Isha Koppikar], a celebrated author, returns to her home in India after a gap. Her friend Aditya hosts a Holi party at his mansion and the same night, is found brutally murdered under mysterious circumstances.
Uday [Manoj Bajpai], an upright cop, is asked to solve the case. Uday, a hot-blooded officer feared by the underworld but criticized widely for ruthlessly killing criminals in encounters, suspects Avantika of committing the heinous act. After all, she was seen escorting Aditya to his room minutes before he was found murdered.
A few nights later, yet another murder takes place. Paradoxically, the murders are committed exactly the way Avantika had described them in her best-selling novel.
Uday, who is attracted to Avantika, tries to coerce her into accepting the crime. But a defiant and headstrong Avantika remains unperturbed and doesn't cow down even once. What happens next?
What could've been an edge-of-the-seat thriller does an about-turn soon after it takes off. Yes, a few clever sequences do tease your mind - those between Isha and Manoj deserve a mention - but the writer relies too heavily on hackneyed stuff to carry the story forward.
Frankly, the plot is never all that convoluted and after a point it's easy to figure out who the killer is. Besides, the pacing gets slow, the details of the plot aren't all that engrossing and the film somehow needs over two hours [16 reels] to tell a very simple story that ultimately goes nowhere.
Pankuj Parashar is an extremely competent director. But the way in which he takes us where he wants us to go is joyless, and without much intensity. At times, INTEQAM - THE PERFECT GAME also looks like a rushed job. The film may be a notch above his last few works [RAJKUMAR, HIMALAY PUTRA, TUMKO NA BHOOL PAAYENGE], but when compared to JALWA and CHAALBAAZ, it pales considerably.
Anand-Milind's music is of the fast-forward type. The tunes sound repetitive and the fact that they aren't promoted to the optimum, do further harm. Cinematography [Nirav Shah] is just about okay. Dialogues [Jalees Sherwani] are well penned.
Manoj Bajpai tries hard to play the conventional hero, but fails miserably. Isha Koppikar takes you by surprise with a super-confident portrayal. However, she needs to concentrate on her dresses [awful]. Nethra Raghuraman is better this time around. Sharat Saxena provides some entertaining moments. Sushmita Mukherjee is alright.
On the whole, INTEQAM - THE PERFECT GAME is anything but a perfect thriller. At the box-office, the film will find difficult to remain afloat not only because it's weak in merits, but also because it has been released without a proper build-up/promotion. Below average!
 
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