‘Nakshatra’ Review By Komal Nahta

Soon after the script is complete, Ajay and Jiah decide to get engaged but their engagement ceremony is rudely interrupted by police inspector Gupte (Milind Soman) who has come to arrest Ajay for the theft of the expensive necklace from the museum. The closed circuit TV cameras in the museum had captured Ajay frequenting the museum and spending a long time there everyday because of which he is the prime suspect in the theft case. Ajay tries to convince the police that he had frequented the museum for research work so that his script could be authentic, but the police arrest him. Ajay escapes from police custody as he realises that the film’s producers had carried out the theft by using his film script in which he had mentioned the two passwords, which had turned out to be the actual passwords!

Even as Ajay tries to prove his innocence, he fails as, one by one, each of the four produ­cers is killed by unknown people in mysterious circumstances. Police officer Gupte soon realises, Ajay may not be the thief as he wouldn’t kill the very people whose arrest would prove his innocence.

Is Ajay able to prove his innocence? Who is the real thief? Is the police able to reach him? These are the questions answered in the pre-climax and climax.

Mohan Savalkar’s story and Marmbandha’s screenplay are kiddish, to say the least. Who­ever said, a writer must crack Internet passwords to write a good script? Would the thriller, which Ajay was scripting, be any different if the passwords were not the same as the actual passwords? And how could he just dream of the two passwords by researching in the museum? What kind of research led him to know the two passwords? Probably, Savalkar and Marmbandha are not even aware of what comprises a film writer’s job. Also, why would any owner of a museum announce the fact that two passwords are necessary to lay one’s hands on the necklace, in full hearing range of the invitees at the opening of the museum? But the owner (Gajendra Chauhan) of the museum under reference does exactly that. This is clearly a convenient hook put in the script in the beginning so that it can be used later. Similarly, the producers appointing Ajay as the writer so that he would provide them the passwords of the actual museum was too convoluted an idea to strike anybody. For, as mentioned above, cracking the secret passwords is not a script writer’s job, in the first place.