Basic plot: Ad agency National
Creative Director and board member Maya Luthra (Chitrangada Singh) lodges a
complaint of sexual harassment against her CEO and fellow board member Rahul
Verma (Arjun Rampal), which he portrays as an attempt to take over his job.
At intermission, when my friend
and I went to the snacks counter, we talked about how we felt that Maya’s allegations
were baseless and that her own behaviour was unprofessional, even if not
sexually inappropriate. But the minute the second half started, we realized how wrong we could be. And that is the beauty of Inkaar, Sudhir Mishra’s film that
tackles a host of issues including sexual exploitation at the workplace,
professional rivalry, romantic jealousy, and the glass ceiling. It is not a
perfect film at all, but its success lies in the fact that it offers no judgement
and paints its lead characters very decisively in grey.
Maya, a brash, ambitious,
talented girl from Solan meets suave advertising legend Rahul at an ad awards
party, and he eventually offers her a job at his agency in Mumbai. He mentors
her, trains her not just in copywriting, but how to pitch ideas, how to present
herself, groom herself, and soon she becomes the star of the company.
Meanwhile, their palpable chemistry turns into more, but insecurity and
different expectations turn their equation sour and Maya moves to the agency’s Delhi branch. When she
returns to Mumbai after a stint in New
York, she is promoted to National Creative Director
and made a board member, and suddenly, things go from tense to out-and-out
antagonistic.
While the plot itself is
interesting, what’s more noteworthy is the way the narrative is structured. The
story moves back and forth within the framework of a closed-door hearing, with
both Maya and Rahul giving their versions of past events to a panel consisting
of their colleagues and a human rights worker. Both of their versions are so
believable that it is difficult to take sides. Rahul constantly undercuts
Maya’s story by presenting an equally convincing one of his own, and raises questions
about the blurry line between friendly banter and harassment; he also shows us a Maya who is hysterical, almost unhinged. Likewise, just
when we think Maya’s totally playing her gender card to get sympathy, she
recounts events that really make us want to throttle Rahul. The one big flaw here is that what could have been a watertight narrative sometimes gets derailed by meandering arguments that veer into emotional territory and take away from the actual complaint. There are also some flashbacks to
Rahul’s own childhood and even his current personal life, which seem to be an attempt to explain
his motivations and lead the film to its somewhat populist, but very believable, ending.
Performance-wise, Arjun Rampal
has finally done a truly great job – more than Rock On!, this movie shows what he can do with the right direction.
And Chitrangada, while not terribly powerful, manages to hold her own despite being
stuck with clichéd and repetitive dialogue (when
will Bollywood realize that repeating something in English and Hindi doesn’t make it sound more heartfelt?) The supporting
cast is also solid, with Vipin Sharma doing particularly well as the standard
office chauvinist.
My biggest problem with Inkaar? The distracting gorgeousness of
Arjun and Chitrangada. I actually have no recollection of the first few minutes
of the film because I was just gazing unblinkingly at both of them.
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