UV Films’ Nirdosh (A) is a murder mystery.
Shinaya Grover (Manjari Fadnis), an extremely noble-hearted television journalist, is arrested for a murder. Investigating police officer Lokhande (Arbaaz Khan) interrogates her. He is known to be ruthless in his questioning. Also, Lokhande is known never to punish someone who is not guilty, and leave anybody who is guilty. Shinaya keeps repeating that she has been framed but Lokhande is not prepared to believe her till her husband, Gautam Grover (Ashmit Patel), reaches the police station and confesses to the crime. He tells Lokhande that he was in a relationship with their PG, Ada Saxena (Maheck Chahal), and had murdered their neighbour, Rana (Mukul Dev), because he was blackmailing him with a video of him (Gautam) and Ada in a compromising position. Since Shinaya had also told Lokhande about Gautam’s extra-marital affair with Ada, and about Rana blackmailing her with the video, she now tells him that the murder had been committed by her and not by Gautam. She explains that in return for the video, Rana had tried to rape her (Shinaya) and that she had killed him in an act of self-defence. Shinaya’s finger prints had also been found at the place of the murder, which was Rana’s house. This had led to her arrest in the case. However, the weapon used for the murder is missing.
There are other suspects too – Ada Saxena, Rana’s wife, Durga (Shilpa Kadam), who Rana used to physically and mentally abuse, Durga’s brother, Raj Bhosle (Aastad Kale), who had had a terrible fight with Rana around the time he was murdered, because he had seen Rana beating up his sister, and others too. Finally, the matter reaches the court. Perhaps, for the first time in his career, Lokhande is unable to prove who has committed the crime. Ultimately, Shinaya is acquitted.
So who committed Rana’s murder? Did Lokhande know the murderer? If not, why did he fail this time? If yes, why did he let the murderer go scot-free? And what was the weapon used for the crime?
Amit Khan has penned a juvenile story of crime. Because the story is so kiddish, it never really engages or involves the audience despite being a murder mystery. His screenplay has many holes because of which it fails to sustain the viewers’ interest for long. The scenes of interrogation are lengthy and often boring. They also look childish on many occasions. Even the courtroom drama has been carelessly written. Amit Khan’s dialogues are hardly impressive.
Arbaaz Khan does an average job and makes his performance uni-dimensional, often repeating lines! Ashmit Patel’s acting is flat and looks unconvincing. Manjari Fadnis looks pretty and is earnest as Shinaya. Maheck Chahal exudes oomph but her performance is average as Ada Saxena. Mukul Dev plays Rana effectively. Aastad Kale leaves a mark in the role of politician Raj Bhosle. Shilpa Kadam is so-so as Rana’s wife, Durga. Manisha Kelkar makes her presence felt as Lokhande’s deputy, Shalini Patil. Aakash Sinha is just about passable as Lokhande’s other deputy, Waghmare. Geetanjali Mishra has a couple of entertaining moments as maid Laxmi Bai. Pushpak Chawla is okay as Ada’s boyfriend, Robin. Dinesh Lamba (as the housing society guard), Rajkumar Kanojia (as the liftman), Muni Jha (as the secretary of the housing society), baby Zenia Shastikar (as Gautam and Shinaya’s little daughter, Dil), Yusuf Hussain (as the judge), Zafar Ali Sayyed and Eva Shirali (both as lawyers), Himanshu Manek (as the forensic expert), Prem Nath Gulati (as the police commissioner) and the rest lend routine support and are mostly predictable.
Pradeep Rangwani and Subroto Paul’s direction is fair but they’ve not been able to camouflage the shortcomings of the script. Musically, the ‘Saiyyan re’ song (composed by Liyakat Ajmeri, and penned by Shakeel Azmi) is appealing. The other song (composed by Harry Anand, penned by Amit Khan) is average. Raju Khan and Vishnu Deva’s choreography is okay. Sanjoy Chowdhury’s background music is routine. Arun Prasad’s camerawork is alright. Abbas Ali Moghul’s action and stunts could’ve been far more exciting. Sanjay Sankla’s editing is not crisp enough for a thriller.
On the whole, Nirdosh is too dull to be an engrossing and engaging murder mystery. It will, therefore, flop at the box-office.