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Release
date:
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January 19, 2018
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Director:
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Kushal Srivastava
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Cast:
Language:
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Kay Kay Menon,
Mandira Bedi, Raima Sen, Sharib Hashmi
Hindi
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Vodka is an
intoxicant, but expect the opposite effect from director Kushal Srivastava’s Vodka Diaries now in theatres. The title
is drawn from a nightclub in Manali linked to a series of murders that ACP
Ashwini Dixit (Kay Kay Menon) sets out to solve in the film. Subsequent scenes reveal
that those crimes may well have occurred only in Dixit’s imagination, as
character after character that he had seen dead resurfaces around him, healthy
and whole. Either that, or someone is playing a nasty trick on him or orchestrating
a cover-up. Take your pick.
When these mind
games begin, Dixit is already traumatised by a recurring nightmare. He fights
hard not to succumb to his confusion and fears, even as his wife Shikha, a poet
played by Mandira Bedi, tries to soothe his nerves when that bad dream occurs.
To some extent their banter does calm him down.
In addition to the lead
couple and the murder ‘victims’, there are two important players in this story:
a mystery woman played by Raima Sen who is shadowing Dixit, and a subordinate
cop (Sharib Hashmi) who is a master of pathetic puns and jokes.
Vodka Diaries’ basic concept may have been developed better by
a better writer, but as things stand, when the big reveal comes, Raima Sen’s
character’s secret is so silly that the aspect of the plot which had potential –
why Dixit sees what he sees or thinks he does – ceases to matter.
Menon, who has been truly special in some films, usually needs a solid director to keep him in check. In
the absence of controls in Vodka Diaries,
he overdoes things to such an extent that he gives the impression that he is
mocking himself, his character and the film.
Hashmi, who was so loveable in 2014’s unheralded Filmistaan, and
Bedi are more invested in their half-baked roles. Sen, on the other hand, with
not a hair or a dot of makeup out of place, looks pretty, bored and
disinterested.
DoP Maneesh ChandraBhatt delivers some eye-catching shots of picturesque Manali, and along with
the production design team manages to build up an ominous atmosphere in the
early part of the narrative. However, the look of the film recedes into the
background as the effect of the inert direction sets in and the overt effort to
manipulate the audience gets tedious.
The casting
director too must be called to account. The artistes playing the murder ‘victims’
are so indistinctive that, frankly, I could not bring myself to care whether
they were alive or dead.
If the writing
department had shown as much devotion to Vodka
Diaries as Raima Sen’s styling team did, perhaps something could have come
of it. The mystery here is not who the killer is, who died or whether someone
died at all. The mystery is who the hell greenlit this undercooked script,
deeming it worthy of being made into a film.
Rating
(out of five stars): 1/2
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CBFC Rating (India):
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UA
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Running time:
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118 minutes
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