‘LAKEEREIN’ REVIEW | 3 November, 2023

Image & Creation, BTC Multimedia Productions and Black Pearl Movies’ Lakeerein (UA) is about marital rape.

Kavya Agnihotri (Tia Bajpai) files a case of marital rape against her husband, Vivek Agnihotri (Gaurav Chopra). At first, no police officer is willing to file her compliant and no lawyer is willing to fight her case. Then, advocate Geeta Biswas (Bidita Bag) agrees to represent her in court. Does Kavya get justice?

Surya Saxena and Durgesh Pathak have penned a fairly bold story but it doesn’t create the impact which stories of this kind ought to. Dilip Shukla’s screenplay is fairly good in parts only. It gets confusing at times. Overall, it lacks entertainment value and also does not have the requisite amount of shock value. The climax is a letdown. Dilip Shukla’s dialogues are okay.

Tia Bajpai does a good job as Kavya Agnihotri. Gaurav Chopra is fair as Vivek Agnihotri. Bidita Bag is alright as advocate Geeta Biswas. Ashutosh Rana plays defence lawyer Dudhari Singh with conviction. Rajesh Jais is okay as Kavya’s father, Purshottam Bharti. Mukesh Bhatt lends average support as Rambabu. Aman Verma is so-so in a brief role as Ravi Verma. Meenakshi Arya (as Ravi Verma’s wife, Anita), Aditi Dixit (as Naseema), Ali Mohd. (as Kasim), Rajesh Srivastava (as Bade Dadda), Saharsh Shukla (as advocate Sagar Srivastava), Vishal Singh (as Aakash) and Sudha Pal (as Vivek Agnihotri’s maid, Sugandha) provide ordinary support.

Durgesh Pathak’s direction is alright. Vipin Patwa’s music is routine while his background music is okay. Niharika Pandey’s lyrics are ordinary. Naren A. Gedia’s camerawork is so-so. Mohd. Ahmed Shaikh’s production designing is so-so. Editing (Harkirat Singh Lal, Sundar Pathuri and Parag Khoud) should’ve been tighter.

On the whole, Lakeerein may be bold but its performance at the box-office will be poor.

Released on 3-11-’23 at Metro Inox (daily 1 show) and other cinemas of Bombay thru Reliance Entertainment. Publicity & opening: poor. …….Also released all over. Opening was weak everywhere.