The roots of the Red Chillies-Dharma-produced Ittefaq run really deep. Officially, it’s a remake of the 1969 Yash Chopra-directed Ittefaq, but that B.R. Chopra production was actually copied from the 1965 Hollywood film Signpost to Murder which itself was adapted from a play.

Interestingly, while the basic premise remains the same after five decades of rehashing, the new Ittefaq spins a more believable yarn and ties more convincing twists in its tail. At well under two hours, this is a rare taut thriller coming out of Bollywood with very few loose ends and an atmosphere fittingly dark and brooding.

That makes it a deserving remake from the Chopra house — Abhay, a grandson of B.R. Chopra, directs this new version, while the other grandson Juno is a co-producer on the project — given that the Rajesh Khanna-Nanda-starrer was a clutter-breaker in its time, being a songless thriller.

So, we have a man, who’s accused of killing his wife and on the run, entering the apartment of a woman. By the time the cops arrive, there’s another murdered body — that of the woman’s husband. Now there are two versions of what happened that night — by the two people alive, the man, Vikram (Sidharth Malhotra), and the woman, Maya (Sonakshi Sinha).

Vikram is a successful novelist. It’s baffling how Sidharth Malhotra gets cast as a writer in film after film (last time it was Kapoor & Sons) though he doesn’t look like he can even write a memo. Here it’s a necessity of the plot because if you’re a writer, chances are you have a vivid imagination and can cook up stories in a jiffy.

That’s what investigating cop Dev (Akshaye Khanna) believes when he starts interrogating Vikram, as Maya comes across as a simple homemaker telling the truth when she gives her statement. Soon her extra-marital affair surfaces and the plot thickens enough for Dev the cop and you the audience to be questioning what actually happened that night.

The writing by Abhay Chopra, Shreyas Jain and Nikhil Mehrotra is top notch, keeping the suspense going right through the running time. A dripping and dreary Mumbai provides a sinister backdrop, even as new layers and new players get peeled off one by one. Most importantly, the climax, replete with twists and turns, works beautifully.

Sidharth is again a problem. He struggles in the emotional scenes and that costs the movies he does. Here, too, he is out of his depth in many an important sequence. Sonakshi is adequate as the mystery woman who might be hiding a big bag of secrets but adds nothing to the script or her character.

The actor who really turns it on and who you go back with is Akshaye Khanna. Oh, how much have we missed this guy! The sharp body language, the witty repartees, the desperation to find the truth... Ittefaq is more about Dev than Vikram and Maya and thankfully so.

It’s unlikely that you’ll crack the case before Dev, given how intelligently the script has been woven. And even if you do, it won’t spoil the fun of the climax. Because like all good mystery thrillers, Ittefaq is not only about who did it but also about how and why they did what they did. 

Pratim D. Gupta

Ittefaq worked/ didn’t work for me because... 
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