Tusshar Entertainment House and NH Studioz’s Maarrich (UA) is a whodunit thriller. Rajiv Dixit (Tusshar Kapoor) is a principled police officer who is investigating a double murder. Model Reena and social worker Pooja have been murdered. Their flat-mate, Lisa (Chelsha Gosai), is a drug addict. Is Lisa the murderer? Or is it Lisa’s father, Anthony (Rahul Dev), who has just completed his jail term for the murder of his own wife? Or is it the coconut vendor (Vishal Panwar) who used to visit the house where the three ladies lived?
Even as Rajiv Dixit is investigating the double murder case, his pregnant wife, Sushmita (Anita Hassanandani), is attacked twice. Mahesh (Akash Dahiya) is arrested by the police for the attack. He spills some beans before the police, which alarms them. Anyway, in the same hospital as Sushmita is Lisa who is admitted by Rajiv Dixit for her drug addiction problem.
The police contacts Lobo (Naseeruddin Shah) who is Anthony’s father-in-law and, therefore, Lisa’s grandfather. Rajiv Dixit warns Lobo that his grand-daughter’s life is in danger because Anthony might be planning to kill her. But Lisa is already dead! Who killed her?
Dhruv Lather has written a story which hardly arrests the audience’s attention. There are many characters in the drama, many of who are evil. Dhruv Lather’s screenplay and Priyank V. Jain’s additional screenplay are quite boring. In spite of being a thriller, the drama appears stretched unnecessarily. One gets the feeling that several characters are introduced merely so that the viewers would find it difficult to hazard a guess about the murderer. But, frankly, they (viewers) don’t care after a point of time. The revelation of the suspense is not too exciting. Dhruv Lather’s dialogues are okay.
Tusshar Kapoor does fairly well as Rajiv Dixit. Naseeruddin Shah is very impressive as Lobo. Rahul Dev makes his presence felt in the role of Anthony. Anita Hassanandani is okay as Sushmita. Akash Dahiya makes his presence felt as Mahesh. Seerat Kapoor lends average support as Reena. Chelsha Gosai (as Lisa) is alright. Dipannita Sharma, Vishal Panwar (as the coconut vendor) and the others are adequate.
Dhruv Lather’s direction is so-so. Music (Amaal Malik and Vishal Mishra) is fair. Lyrics (Vishal Mishra and Rashmi Virag) are quite good. Ravi Yadav’s camerawork is of a fine standard. Sameer Khan’s action and stunt scenes afford some thrill. Leena Bhandula’s production designing is average. Ballu Saluja’s editing is reasonably sharp.
On the whole, Maarrich is not half as exciting as it ought to have been. It will prove to be a non-starter.
Released on 9-12-’22 at Inox (daily 2 shows) and other cinemas of Bombay thru Rishabh Enterprises. Publicity: okay. Opening: dull. …….Also released all over. Opening was weak everywhere.