Gupta's first feature, 'Aamir', obtained its 'inspiration' from the Filipino cult-classic' 'Cavite', and as such, I thought he should not have been so blatantly obvious about it, notwithstanding it's excellent soundtrack (something his next feature also had in spades). I did enjoy his next, 'No one killed Jessica', which was culled various newspaper reports on the case, and made for an engaging drama (less a thriller, more a drama, IMHO), and was lookin' fwd to this, in spite of thinking' that the plot was probably being lifted from Danny Boyle's 'Trance', and wishing he wasn't so blatant about his inspirations though. (I have since changed my opinion about this one and 'Trance', having seen both)
Poised, I hope to be cult classic. Must've confused the hell outa the marketing team, who've managed to (wrongly, and to the movie's detriment) pitch this as a comedy.
There sure are dark comedic overtones, but make no mistake, this is a drama first, thriller next, with little doses of uneven dark humor sprinkled across. In retrospect, it tells a very simple story. Memory loss (yes, think 'Trance' again), heist, is-he-lying, or is-she kinda setups.
Boasts one of the best performances from Balan (who almost tops her own turn in 'Kahaani'), while giving everyone something to do. Hashmi has proved he can be a force in the acting department, given the right director (Banerjee's Shanghai saw him at his best), and he's fantastic here, since the movie hinges on his selling us his character's predicament. And here, we come to the crux of the matter: Hashmi's so good, that I was able to downplay the bad writing/direction that have gone into removing any semblance of consistency from the central conceit, all in favor of making it a whodunnit-kinda farce. While this is refreshing from the POV of not knowing what might happen next, it falls flat on reflection, and that 'falling flat' happens within the movie's duration itself, unfortunately.
Excellent camera-work and background score complement Gupta's ambition, but to me, this will be his also-ran-but-try-harder-next-time effort from his end.
This one has one of the best endings I've ever seen committed to celluloid, but that still wasn't enough from me still thinking of what could've been, and writing thus.
No need to for me to state this explicitly, but this is definitely much superior to the run-of-the-mill product playing even in multiplexes, so I do hope the people encourage these Indies by watching them at a cinema close by. Definitely a keeper, even in terms of DVD/Blu.