White Feather Films’ Visfot is a thriller. Shoeb (Fardeen Khan) is educated and an upright young man who plies a taxi in Bombay. A lower middle-class young man, he has to look after his mother (Sheeba Chaddha) who is very unwell. Shoeb loves Lucky (Krystle D’Souza) and plans to marry her. Akash (Ritesh Deshmukh) is a pilot who lives with his wife, Tara (Priya Bapat), and little son, Parth alias Pubby (Prithviraj Sarnaik). Akash is shocked to learn that Tara is in a relationship with Javed (Arjun Aneja). In fact, he catches the two red-handed in a hotel room.
By a quirk of fate, Pubby reaches Shoeb’s house and the latter is forced to use him to extort money from Akash and Tara. Why is Shoeb treading the extortion path despite being honest and straightforward? Is he playing in someone else’s hands? Does he manage to get the Rs. 2 crore he demands? Are Akash and Tara able to arrange for the obscene amount of money demanded by Shoeb? Do Akash and Tara re-unite with their son or not? Whom does Tara ultimately live with ever after?
The film is adapted from Venezuelan film Piedra Papel O Tijera. Hussain Dalal and Abbas Dalal have written an interesting story where the lives of two couples intersect in spite of the fact that there is no connection between the two couples. Their screenplay is fast-paced, especially in the first half when the audience is in for one shock after another. The pace slackens a bit in the second half but yet, the drama continues to keep the viewers engaged. The climax is again fast-moving. The duo’s dialogues are very appropriate and go well with the characters mouthing them.
Ritesh Deshmukh gives a pretty good account of himself as the pilot-husband and father. Fardeen Khan doesn’t completely look like a cab driver but his performance in the role of Shoeb is good. Priya Bapat is lovely as Tara. Krystle D’Zouza does a natural job as Lucky. Sheeba Chaddha is excellent as Shoeb’s mother. Seema Biswas is terrifying as Acid Tai. Nachiket Purnapatre performs extraordinarily as Manya. Arjun Aneja stands his own as Javed. Ayaz Khan makes his presence felt as Sagar. Neha Pednekar lends nice support as Shreya. Vivaan Parashar (as Altaf) has his moments. Purnendu Bhattacharya is alright as Fernandes. Satyajeet Kadam shines in the role of Waghmare. Tejas Gaikwad makes his mark as Peter. Saransh Taneja is lovely as cafe manager Cyrus. Prithviraj Sarnaik is natural to the core as Pubby alias Parth. Arhan Khan is good as Mehmood. Raj Shekhar Chandran (as Bala) and Abhijit Ghadge (as Ravi) are okay. Adarsh Bharti (as the khabri kid), Indra Mansukhani (as the Christian lady) and the others are adequate.
Kookie Gulati’s direction is nice. His narration keeps the audience hooked to the proceedings. Amjad Nadeem Aamir’s music is fairly good. Lyrics (Amjad Nadeem) are okay. Anasua Chowdhary’s choreography is fair. Amar Mohile’s background music is appealing. Camerawork (by Shikhar Bhatnagar) is very nice. Javed Karim’s action and stunts are suitably thrilling. Sneha Bhandare’s production designing is proper. Manish More’s editing is truly sharp.
On the whole, Visfot is a fairly good thriller.
Released on 6-9-’24 on JioCinema.