Salil Sankaran and Senn Productions’ Paharganj (A) is the story of drugs, rape, murder, revenge and everything associated with them. The film is set in Paharganj, a locality in the heart of Delhi city.
Basketball coach Gautam Menon (Bijesh Jayarajan) is haunted by the death of his brother, Joy, a state-level basketball champion. Laura Costa (Lorena Franco) comes from Spain to marry her boyfriend, Robert. She first goes to Jaisalmer but when she can’t find him there, she reaches Paharganj in Delhi. Robert, unknown to her, is in the business of supplying drugs. Not the one to give up, Laura keeps searching for Robert. In the process, she is raped by Baba Ghantal (Gautam Kurup), a tantrik.
Jitender Tomar (Karan Soni), the flamboyant son of home minister Dharam Pal Tomar, is murdered on his 25th birthday. No one knows who the murderer is. The ministry asks the Intelligence Bureau to probe into the murder. Gyanesh Pratap (Rajeev Gaursingh) and Vinayak Srivastava (Karan Jeet), two very capable police officers, are assigned the job of investigating the case of Jitender Tomar’s murder. The two officers soon realise that there are several interconnected events which converge around the murder.
Rakesh Ranjan Kumar, Hanuman Prasad Rai and Dheeraj Virmani have written a story which is full of clichés and predictable twists and turns. Their screenplay treads the beaten path but yet, it is confusing for the audience. Nothing really makes the drama compelling enough for the viewers. The trio’s dialogues are poor.
Lorena Franco is okay as Laura Costa. Bijesh Jayarajan acts quite well as Gautam Menon. Rajeev Gaursingh (as Gyanesh Pratap) and Karan Jeet (as Vinayak Srivastava) lend fine support. Salman Khan is effective as Munna. Neet Chowdhary performs decently as Pooja Menon. Karan Soni is alright in a brief role as Jitender Tomar. Poonam Mathur (as Simran), Rajesh Sharma (as sub-inspector Rawat), Gautam Kurup (as Baba Ghantal), Manish Devkunsh (as Sonu B.C.), Karan Dutt (as Nishant) and the others provide routine support.
Rakesh Ranjan Kumar’s direction is rather weak. Ajay Singha’s music, and Shellee’s lyrics are okay. Song picturisations are ordinary. Art direction (Sanjay Gupta, Hari Kashyap and Rajeev Kovilakom) does not merit mention. Sandeep Francis’ editing leaves something to be desired.
On the whole, Paharganj is so dull that it will go largely unnoticed except in the Delhi locality where it is based.
Released on 12-4-’19 at Inox Metro (daily 1 show) and other cinemas of Bombay thru Panorama Studios. Publicity & opening: poor. …….Also released all over. Opening was weak everywhere.