Roller Coaster Motion Pictures’ My Client’s Wife is a suspense thriller. A lawyer, Manas Verma (Sharib Hashmi), gets sucked into the intriguing case of his client, Raghuram Singh (Abhimanyu Singh), and his wife, Sindura Singh (Anjali Patil). Sindura has filed a case of attempt to murder against her husband. Manas Verma interrogates Raghuram Singh, his wife and several other people to solve the case.
Prabhakar ‘Meena Bhaskar’ Pant has penned an implausible story and an equally implausible screenplay. The revelation of the suspense comes quite late in the drama, and understandably so, but the revelation is so weird that the audiences get the feeling of having wasted their time. Frankly, that suspense makes more sense for the viewers, in which they come close to guessing, but this drama has a suspense which nobody can even dream of guessing. This is not the only fault with the story and screenplay. Even otherwise, the story-line is so thin that the first few reels appear repetitive and, therefore, slow and boring. A good part of the drama is devoted to the lawyer hearing three versions of the same incident from three different people, adding to the boredom of the viewers. The audience wonders what kind of lawyer Manas Verma is because he takes the liberty of speaking to the petitioner in spite of being the lawyer for the defendant. Which law permits him to do so has not been explained. In fact, it often appears that Manas Verma is not just the lawyer but the judge too, given the way he sets about to solve the case rather than argue it in the court of law! Of course, when the suspense is revealed, this anomaly gets resolved, but since that happens towards the end of the drama, the viewers keep searching for the justification of the lawyer’s actions, all through the drama.
In the initial reels, Raghuram Singh is shown to be speaking with his lawyer in such a rude manner that you wonder whether Manas is the lawyer or the servant. Why, Raghuram Singh even asks his lawyer if he wants to know the truth, and then proceeds to tell him to hear him out in that case. Really? Isn’t it implied that Manas Verma indeed wants to hear the truth from his client, Raghuram Singh? The screenplay is written in a fashion that the drama sometimes appears to be horror, which it is not. The audience wonders why the writer-director traverses that path when the film is not meant to be a horror drama at all. All in all, the story and screenplay are terribly silly and childish. Prabhakar ‘Meena Bhaskar’ Pant’s dialogues are dull. Perhaps, the only dialogue that rings true is the one in which Sindura Singh tells Raghuram Singh, “Baar-baar wohi sab baatein mat kiya karo.” That’s because Sindura’s dialogue expresses what the audience actually feels till then — that the characters are simply repeating ad nauseum.
Sharib Hashmi does reasonably well as lawyer Manas Verma. Anjali Patil is fairly good as Sindura Singh. Abhimanyu Singh is alright as Raghuram Singh. Vishal Om Prakash (as the security guard), Dipesh Shah (as the gardener), Gireesh Sahdev (as the investigating police inspector), Mazher Sayed (as the cable TV subscription collection man), Anushkaa Singh (as Sindura Singh in the hospital) and Teejan Bai (in a special appearance) lend routine support.
Prabhakar ‘Meena Bhaskar’ Pant’s direction is weak. Sanchit Balhara’s background music hardly serves to intensify the impact of the drama. Mazhar Kamran’s camerawork is alright. Chandrashekhar Yadav’s art direction is ordinary. Pushkar Bhaskar Pant’s editing leaves a lot to be desired.
On the whole, My Client’s Wife is a poor fare.
Released on 31-7-’20 on ShemarooMe.