Raju Chadha Films and Alliance Productions India LLP’s Tipppsy (UA) is a murder mystery. Four friends go for a bachelorette party to Goa. Pony (Alankrita Anup Sahai) is to get married to Rahul (Manish Goplani). Pony decides to have a bachelorette party in Goa along with three friends — Tanya (Natasha Suri), Iris (Nazia Hussain) and Yami (Kainaat Arora). The four friends get drunk at a party in Goa and are offered a good time by a group of young men. Once they wake up the next morning in their room in the villa, they find Pony’s expensive engagement ring missing, and Iris injured on the forehead. As if that’s not bad enough, Rahul calls off the marriage. What’s more, the four girls get involved in a murder case. Selene’s (Sonia Birje) boyfriend, Sooraj (Harjinder Singh), is murdered and his body is found in the swimming pool attached to the villa room of the four girls. Since they were dead drunk the previous night and had also done drugs, they can’t remember what exactly had transpired. Who has murdered Sooraj? And why?
Deepak Tijori has written a very routine story which moves in a predictable fashion. His screenplay is clichéd and, therefore, lacks excitement. The drama has so many loose ends that it rarely manages to engage the audience completely. Pony’s fiancé has called off the marriage but Pony continues to behave so immaturely after that that it would appear as if the wedding cancellation is not a big deal. Even after the four friends are rounded up as suspects in the murder case, their body language suggests that it is quite normal to be caught in such a situation. The revelation of the suspense about the identity of the killer fails to give the audience a high because they were never involved in the guessing game. And the reason why the viewers don’t try to guess who the murderer could be is because there is hardly any clue for them to play around with. It is for these reasons that the whodunit is not engaging or entertaining. Suvidha Mall’s dialogues, with additional dialogues by Deepak Tijori, are routine.
None of the performances stands out, generally speaking. Alankrita Anup Sahai is alright as Pony. Natasha Suri does fairly well as Tanya. Nazia Hussain is quite good in the role of Iris. Kainaat Arora does quite well as Yami. Sonia Birje lends average support as Selene. Deepak Tijori is reasonably good as investigating police officer Jacob. Harjinder Singh makes his presence felt as Sooraj. Bharat Bhatia is earnest as Jasraj. Aditya Lakhia is ordinary as Dr. Gerard. Manish Goplani has his moments as Rahul. Shaswat Saurav is adequate as Tanya’s boyfriend, Varun. Danish Bhat (as Kabir), Mithun Rodwittiya (as Martin), Himanshu Sharma (as the taxi driver), Snehal Kulshreshtha (as the villa manager), Mukesh Pandey (as Jawahar Tiwari), Sunny (as the bartender), Mandeep Kaur Sandhu (as Jessy), Shweta Ghosh (as Lily), and the rest provide reasonable support.
Deepak Tijori’s direction is so-so. While he has kept the narration fast-paced, he has not been able to add the thrill element in the whodunit. Music (Babli Haque, Meera Sarkar, Anjjan Bhattacharya and Ajay Singha) is fairly nice but none of the songs is of the popular variety. Lyrics (Kumaar, Nivedita Pohankar) are functional. Song picturisations (by Bosco-Caesar, Deepak Tijori and Yogesh Karsan Parmar) are quite alright. Ajay Singha’s background music leaves something to be desired. Manoj Soni’s cinematography is proper. Action and stunt scenes (Mehmood Akbar Bakshi, Stuntalot, Sunvik Bhardwaj and Roman Korzhuk) afford some thrill. Production designing (by Kumar Sagar) and art direction (Vilas V. Birajdar) are okay. Editing (Prashant Singh Rathore and Asif Khan) should’ve been tighter.
On the whole, Tipppsy is so routine that it will remain a non-starter.
Released on 10-5-’24 at Metro Inox (daily 1 show) and other cinemas of Bombay thru Panorama Studios. Publicity & opening: poor. …….Also released all over. Opening was weak everywhere.