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MOVIE REVIEW: Gumraah (Astray)

By Gitanjali Chak

May 2023

Gumraah (Astray)

Starring: Aditya Roy Kapur, Mrunal Thakur, Ronit Roy

Director: Vardhan Ketkar

Music Directors: Vishal Mishra, Mithoon, Tanishk Bagchi

Gumraah is the latest in the recent surge of Hindi remakes of Tamil hits and if you haven’t seen the original that was titled Thadam, chances are that you will find this whodunnit engaging enough, all its flaws not with standing, the biggest one being dull storytelling. But the premise is intriguing: one murder and two suspects who look alike.

A man is brutally killed in an upmarket Delhi neighborhood. The prime suspect is Arjun Sehgal (Aditya Roy Kapur), a civil engineer and an IITian to boot! But just when the police think that they have an open-and-shut case, along comes a streetsmart trickster, Sooraj ‘Ronnie’ Rana (Aditya Roy Kapur again), to confound the police and the viewers. So, who is the killer?

Fans of Aditya Roy Kapur will be elated. The actor is there in almost every frame—which is inevitable considering he plays a dual role. But, while he does manage to make both his characters different, he fails to make either of them interesting. Mrunal Thakur as rookie investigator Shivani Mathur goes through the film with only two expressions—she either looks determined or confused! The talented actress can definitely do better! Vedika Pinto as Arjun’s girlfriend is good enough in her limited role.

Overall, Gumraah does not bore you but it does not excite you either as a thriller should. By the way, the film is inspired by true incidents.

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