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Mistryy Productions and Dashami Studioz’s Akelli (UA) is the story of grit, courage and determination of a young Indian lady who is trapped in strife-torn Iraq.
Jyoti (Nusrat Bharucha) loses her airlines job in India and is forced to go to Iraq to join a garments manufacturing company as a supervisor, for a livelihood. She leaves behind her mother and orphaned niece in India. Soon, all the non-Sunnis working in the company, including Jyoti, are taken captive by militants. They are tortured physically and mentally. How Jyoti escapes from their clutches and reaches India is the crux of the story.
Pranay Meshram and Gunjan Saxena’s story is interesting but lacks novelty. The duo’s screenplay keeps the audience interest alive only in parts. After a point of time, the drama becomes a bit too convenient, which is when the audience tires of it and loses interest. For, it seems to the viewers that Jyoti can achieve just about anything including escaping from the jaws of death. Her escape from the house of Assad (Tsahi Halevi) and then from the airport seem so unbelievable that what should’ve been clap-trap scenes degenerate into becoming routine scenes of convenience. The feeling of exhilaration, which the audience should experience, is almost completely missing. Likewise, the sentiments fail to touch the heart. Dialogues, penned by Ayush Tiwari and Aseem Ahmed Abbasee, are good but not extraordinary. Also, a lot of dialogues are spoken in the foreign language which won’t be understood by the Indian audience. Although there are subtitles for such dialogues, the impact is lost to a large extent.
Nushrat Bharucha acts very well as Jyoti. She makes her character believable. Nishant Dahiya does well in the role of Rafeeq. Tsahi Halevi is effective in the role of Assad. Amir Boutrous makes his mark as Wahab. Piloo Vidyarthi has her moments as Beeji. Mannat Duggal lends decent support as Jyoti’s niece, Mahi. Rajesh Jais (as Ranjit Chawla), Shivani Sopori (as Noor Bano), Ward Musharafieh (as Mahira), Munisa Halmanova (as Afra), Merve Ozel (as Sabreena), Nand Chopra (as Devendra Suri), Kassem Mansoor (as Iraqi cop Nawab), Jessica Haddad (as Momina, wife of Nawab), Leyla (as the girl with the bomb vest), Imam Mazhar (as factory worker Haafiz), Anu (as Fatima), Mavluda (as Aisha), Khushi (as Aisha), Nodira Murtazoyeva (as Assad’s wife, Habiba), Zareena (as Assad’s wife, Jasmine), Zainuddin (as senior terrorist) and the rest lend decent support.
Pranay Meshram’s direction is fair. Although his narration is neat, he has not been able to make a heartfelt human drama. Music (Hitesh Sonik, Gurshabad Singh, Honey Dhillon, Mehul Vyas and Aman Pant) is average as not a single song is of the popular variety. Lyrics (Raj Shekhar, Gurshabad Singh, Mukund Bhalerao and Manoj Tapadia) are reasonably good. Rohit Kulkarni’s background music is alright. Pushkar Singh’s cinematography is of a fine standard. Ramazan Bulut, Moses and Raj Shinde’s action and stunt scenes are quite thrilling. Mandar Nagaonkar’s production designing and Rishikesh Prakash Patil’s art direction are appropriate. Sumeet Kotian’s editing leaves something to be desired.
On the whole, Akelli is not half as exciting as it should’ve been. As such, it will not be able to entice enough public to the cinemas and will, therefore, prove to be a failure.
Released on 25-8-’23 at Metro Inox (daily 1 show) and other cinemas of Bombay thru PVR Pictures Ltd. Publicity: so-so. Opening: poor. …….Also released all over. Opening was dull everywhere.