Everyone is searching for something...

Talaash (Hindi, Search; 2012)

This is another Hindi movie that whet my appetite for a wholesome film with a darn good story line. It is a combination of many plots which all search for the truth. The first is about a mysterious car accident, the second search is to come in term with the loss of a boy to his parents, the search of escapism from the vicious circle of poverty and prostitution and more...

On a quiet esplanade in Mumbai at 4am, a car plunges into the sea. Investigating team finds more questions than answers to the event and the victim, a famous actor Armaan Kapoor. His widow and his best friend cannot understand why he should be driving when he has a driver and a personal assistant.

In another scene, we find some hoodlums in the slums, somehow, involved in the whole fracas. And there is a lot of backstabbing, all in pursuit of wealth and happiness.

Then, the protagonist, Inspector Surjan Singh Shekhawat (Aamir Khan), the investigating officer having a strained relationship with his wife Roshni after losing their only son to drowning. Shekhawat blames himself for not doing more or taking preventive measures to prevent the mishap. Roshni is under psychiatric help to ease the pain. Then come a medium who bring news that the dead son is trying to communicate with his parents.

Shekhawat, a believer of facts and science, is furious on the wife's inability to come in terms with their loss.

Meanwhile, as the investigation becomes more difficult and was meeting a brick wall, a sex worker (Rosie, Kareena Kapoor) keeps appearing and trying to seduce the inspector. Like an onion skin, everything unfolds slowly.

Roshni meets the medium behind her husband's back and actually becomes more chirpy. Upon discovering this, Shekawat goes ballistic with his wife for believing in spirits.

The hoodlums from the Mumbai slums are working in cahoots with Aman Kapoor's best friend. There are lots of money involved and everybody wants to lay their hands on it. One by one all the guys involved with Armaan get killed.

Finally, Armaan's best friend Sanjay is implicated in the death of Armaan and others. Whilst driving him to station, Shekawat and Sanjay plunge into the sea at the same spot as Armaan met his death after trying to avoid Rosie who standing in the middle of the road!

Then, everything becomes crystal clear.

All the while, Shekhawat's informant is a dead call girl who was killed in freak accident. The accident took place when he and his friends solicited a call girl on a night out. They left the girl by the road side when she was seriously injured. This call girl came back from the after world to avenge her own death through the broody unsettled inspector.

Inspector Singh then starts believing in the supernatural and finally reads his son's letter written to him through the medium.

Not your usual Bollywood fare which would upset many a die-hard fan! Gone are the flashy costumes, unless you consider the gaudy sex workers' attire as haute coutere! Also missing are the set dances and running around the park or ala-Michael Jackson's thriller kind of synchronised dance moves! The music is only in the background and the songs are there to express the grief of the characters. And no birthday or wedding parties with flamboyant dances and attires too.

In a way, some will consider it a neo-noir drama. I would say it is still a masala but a good mix of story from many other films including 'What lies beneath', 'Ghost'and many Hallmark channel TV dramas. 9/10

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