Gutargoo Entertainment and Navritu Films’ The Networker (UA) is the story of a young man who returns to the network marketing world which once nearly destroyed him and prompted him to attempt suicide.
Vikash Malik has written such a childish story that even a fool can point out the flaws in it. After facing near ruination, Aditya (Vikram Kochhar), who should’ve kept away from network marketing, jumps into just that — and what’s more, he and his two partner-friends know at the outset that they would hoodwink investors and the gullible public. Vikas Kumar Vishwakarma’s screenplay is as idiotic as the story. Aditya and his two friends — Raghav (Rishabh Pathak) and Lallan (Durgesh Kumar) — talk about robots as if nobody in the world, except the three of them, know about robots. Members of the public, whom they address with their get-rich-quick schemes, are shown to be so dumb that you want to tear your hair apart in desperation. The investors behave like they’ve been asked to invest a sum of a few thousand rupees, not crores of rupees. Although the point of network marketing is technical, the screenplay writer has hardly bothered to explain clearly how it works. All in all, the screenplay is truly terrible. Vikas Kumar Vishwakarma and Abhinav Pathak’s dialogues are dull.
Vikram Kochhar is earnest in the role of Aditya. Rishabh Pathak is natural as Raghav. Durgesh Kumar is okay as Lallan. Ishtiyak Khan has his moments as Pradeep Biswas. Vindhya Tiwari is ordinary as Ketki. Atul Srivastava is alright as Pradhanji. Brijendra Kala lends average support as Gyani. Vedika Bhandari provides ordinary support as Disha. Nikhat Khan is quite good as Shanti. Vikash Malik (as Arjun), Vivek (as the don) and Abhinav Pathak (as tea vendor Billu) are passable. Omkar Singh Naad, Amar Singh, Atul Rana, Dipak Dahiya, Gaurav Kumar, Sandeep Kumar, Sachin Kumar, Yash, Praveen Baniyal and Kuldeep Kundu (all ten as investors) fail to impress. Others are dull.
Vikas Kumar Vishwakarma’s direction is horrendous. His narration is so weak that the drama fails to move the viewers. Rahul Bhatt and Kalki’s music is reasonably melodious. The Paisa song is nice. Lyrics (Shahid Anjum, Vikas Kumar Vishwakarma and Dheerendra Gautam) are okay. Dhanashree Mehta Goel’s choreography barely passes muster. Parth Saraf’s background music is, at best, functional. Masco Singh and Kamal Chaurasia’s cinematography is dull. Shridhar Mestri’s sets and art direction hardly deserve separate mention. Deepanshu Chawla’s editing leaves plenty to be desired.
On the whole, The Networker is a non-starter.
Released on 9-5-’25 at Cinepolis Andheri (daily 1 show) and other cinemas of Bombay thru Master Group. Publicity & opening: frighteningly poor. …….Also released all over. Opening was bad everywhere.
