ZID

Benaras Mediaworks’ Zid (A) is a suspense thriller. Rohan (Karanvir Sharma) works in a newspaper office as a crime reporter, reporting to his boss, Karan (Mohan Kapur). He tries to decipher a crime story involving Maya (Mannara) who is found dead and a suicide note, written by her, is recovered by the police. Rohan had rented a place belonging to Maya’s wheelchair-bound father, and had grown fond of Maya. But, on her part, Maya had fallen head over heels in love with Rohan to the point of obsession.

Mystery also shrouds the death of a young girl, Nancy (Seerat Kapoor), as it is not clear whether she was killed in a road accident or murdered after being seriously injured in the accident. Nancy is the step-sister of Priya (Shraddha Das), who is the ex-girlfriend of Rohan. Priya left the country a year ago but Rohan is still awaiting a telephone call from her. His boss, Karan, tries to explain to him that she has walked out on him, but Rohan has still to come to terms with that.

In fact, the accident Nancy had met with was when Nancy’s two-wheeler had collided with the car being driven by Rohan himself. But since both, Rohan and Maya, who were travelling in the car, were under the influence of alcohol, they had fled the accident spot without reporting to the police. Investigations into the accident had led the police to Priya, Nancy’s step-sister. Since Priya was Rohan’s ex-grilfriend, the police investigations had brought Priya and Rohan closer once again, a fact deeply resented by Maya. The obsessive Maya had one day even seen Rohan and Priya getting too close for her comfort and had, therefore, tried to end her life. But she had been saved by Rohan. What then had led her to commit suicide? Or was it a murder made to look like a suicide? Who had murdered Nancy and why? Or was Nancy killed because of the accident? Did Maya murder Nancy? Was she jealous of Nancy? Did Priya murder her step-sister? Was the accident stage-managed? Was Priya falling in love with Rohan all over again? If not, why was Maya so insecure about Priya? Was Priya the cause of Maya’s death?

The film is an adaptation of the German film, The Good Neighbour. It is scripted jointly by Vivek Agnihotri and Rohit Malhotra. The story had the germs to be made into a taut thriller but the screenplay becomes routine after a point of time. Both, Rohan and Maya, keep screaming and shouting so much that the audience tires of their behaviour. The viewers also get the feeling that the drama has been stretched too much as, after a point of time, it meanders without really conveying too much. Frankly, the screenplay almost fails to involve the audience in the guessing game about who the killer is, which is so essential in any suspense thriller. This is, perhaps, the biggest drawback of the screenplay. For, rather than becoming involv­ed in and a part of the unfolding drama, the viewer remains a passive spectator. No doubt, the twist in the climax jolts the audience out of its passiveness but it is a bit too late in the day. Dialogues, also penned by the duo, are good.

Karanvir Sharma looks fairly good and does an average job as crime reporter Rohan alias Ronnie. Mannara makes an ordinary debut in Bollywood as Maya. She acts freely but needs to lose weight. She has exposed her body freely. Shraddha Das is quite nice and restrained in the role of Priya. She too provides oomph by exposing uninhibitedly. Denzil Smith performs ably as inspector Moses. Mohan Kapur lends good support as Karan. Rajeev Saxena (as DSP) is nice. Seerat Kapoor (in the role of Nancy), Sanjay Kapoor (as the psychiatrist), Indal Raja (as the wit­ness), Satish Barve (as Maya’s father), baby Apoorva (as younger Maya), Archis Achrekar (as the electrician) and the others provide average support.

Vivek Agnihotri’s direction is ordinary. The biggest problem about his narrative style is that he is unable to quite involve the audience in the guessing game of the suspense thrill­er. Sharib-Toshi’s music is a plus point. All the songs are well-tuned and a couple of them are very appealing. Shakeel Azmi’s lyrics lend weight. Salman Yusuf Khan and Ranju Varghese’s choreography is okay. Aashish Rego’s background music is fairly effective. Yash Bhatt’s camerawork needed to be better. Parvez Shaikh’s action and stunts are alright. Rupin Suchak’s production designing is fair. Satyajit Gazmer’s editing could have been sharper.

On the whole, Zid lacks the excitement of a suspense thriller. With the songs, human anatomy exposure and the twist in the climax being its only trump cards, its chances at the box-office appear limited, given its dull start.