Hey lovely readers, the Vidya Balan thriller ‘Neeyat’ was released on Amazon Prime Video on 1 September. I was very excited to watch it over the coming weekend and don’t worry this review will not give you any spoilers. Neeyat is a thriller movie revolving around a wealthy businessman, Ashish Kapoor (Ram Kapoor). He is shown to be the owner of a billion-dollar company called AK Industries. This company is currently under the Indian government scanner for defaulting on a 200-million-dollar loan.
The movie starts with Ashish Kapoor aka AK landing in his helicopter in front of his magnificent castle in Scotland. It is his birthday and AK has invited his close family and friends for a celebration. Senior Inspector of CBI Mira Rao (Vidya Balan) also happens to be invited to the party for a special reason. The reason is later revealed to the guests during dinner. An alleged suicide and a series of murders subsequently baffle the guests including the inspector. This is when the gripping plot of the movie starts. This enthralling cinematic masterpiece keeps you at the edge of your seat through-out.
The plot twists in the story truly gives the audience a captivating experience. The movie has been shot only at one location depicting the events of a single night. All the characters have been given a rich back story and the actors have portrayed it beautifully. Every scene, dialogue, and expression of the characters in the film have been meticulously written into the script of the movie. Behind the cordial greetings of AK’s guests, lies a hidden grudge against him which gives the audience an uneasy feeling of what is going to happen next.
The mystery of the murders unravel as Mira searches the rooms of all the guests and questions them. There are some surprising revelations and even when you feel the murder has been solved, the writers surprise the audience with yet another twist. Ram Kapoor has portrayed his character flawlessly and is also brilliantly supported by fine actors such as Rahul Bose, Neeraj Kabi and Shashank Arora.
Ashish Kapoor’s role seems to have been inspired from Vijay Mallya. This picture also features some spectacular Scotland locales, and the picturesque scenes are a treat to the eyes. I did read some reviews of the movie which complain that the script has taken inspirations from many mystery movies and books of Agatha Christie, however, I did not think so. According to me, the screenplay is original and does complete justice to the mystery at hand.
In my opinion, although the feature did not do well at the box office, it is a must watch for all those crazy thriller fans. The narrative of the movie is crisp leaving no boring moment. I thoroughly enjoyed the movie. My only criticism would be that the start of the movie is slow, but it soon picks up pace which compensates the viewers of a few dull seconds. One more thing that could be improved is Mira Rao’s character sketch. Vidya Balan has tried her best to salvage the role, but with the supporting characters having such intricate detailing in their past, fails to meet them even halfway through. Mira’s character is shown to have trouble holding a gun and some claustrophobic tendencies which just fizzles out in the film and is not really explained later.
I would give Neeyat 3.7 out of 5 stars.
