Zee Studios and Yippee Ki Yay Motion Pictures’ Berlin (UA) is a thriller.
A young deaf-mute man, Ashok Kumar (Ishwak Singh), and two wing officers, Kapil Mahajan (Ujjwal Chopra) and Mehta (Nitesh Pandey), are arrested by the bureau. Jagdish Sondhi (Rahul Bose) is in charge of the case. Since Ashok Kumar is deaf and mute, Sondhi asks Pushkin Verma (Aparshakti Khurana) to interrogate him. Pushkin teaches the deaf and mute students. Even while the probe is on, wing officer J.V. Raman (Deepak Qazir Kejriwal) demands the release of the two wing officers. In return, he is willing to give the custody of the lady (Anupriya Goenka) to Sondhi along with pictures showing them in a compromising position. It is in Sondhi’s interest to take custody of the lady and the photographs for obvious reasons. What happens finally?
Atul Sabharwal has written a story which doesn’t quite engage the viewers. His screenplay doesn’t make much sense. It is not clear why Ashok Kumar would be interested in saving Pushkin Verma’s life at the cost of his own. All in all, the drama looks hotch potch at several places. Even the climax does not give the audience a feeling of completeness. Atul Sabharwal’s dialogues are commonplace.
Aparshakti Khurana does a fine job as Pushkin Verma. Ishwak Singh acts ably as Ashok Kumar. Rahul Bose is pretty effective as Jagdish Sondhi. Ujjwal Chopra is alright as Kapil Mahajan. Anupriya Goenka makes her mark as the lady who has had physical relations with Sondhi. Jigar Mehta has his moments as Satpal Dhingra. Prashant Singh lends fine support as Ram Narayan. Nitesh Pandey is fair as Mehta. Deepak Qazir Kejriwal is adequate in the role of J.V. Raman. Kabir Bedi is alright in a brief role as the bureau chief. Sudhir Khandelwal (as the football coach), Naveen Gupta (as the employment agent), Nikolay Novomlinskiy (as the Berlin café owner), Joy Sengupta (as Rajiv Gupta) and Muskan Mehta (as Anjali Gupta) do as desired. Others fit the bill.
Atul Sabharwal’s direction is so-so. K.’s background music is average. Shreedutta Namjoshi’s cinematography is average. Vikram Dahiya’s action and stunt scenes are functional. Production designing (by Sandeep Shelar and Ashok Lokare) is okay. Irene Dhar Malik’s editing could’ve been sharper.
On the whole, Berlin is too ordinary to make a mark.
Released on 13-9-’24 on Zee5.