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Join UsStar Cast: Karanvir Sharma, Mannara, Shraddha Das
Director: Vivek Agnihotri
What’s Good: The basic plotline had some mettle.
What’s Bad: The predictability of the story, the climax, the anti climax.
Loo break: Hide in the loo if you don’t want to inflict wounds on your sensibility.
Watch or Not?: Zid is a poorly acted, shabbily made, a pretty bad film that you won’t believe has the touch of Vivek Agnihotri whose Buddha In A Traffic Jam wowed you in MAMI this year. What talented people do to become commercially viable! The film calls itself a thriller and if you have watched atleast a dozen of decent thrillers, you know where it is headed. Karanvir is watchable but Manara with her shrill voice and synthetic acting isn’t good enough as the female lead on whose shoulders the narrative rests. I blame it on her inexperience because her DNA proves otherwise. Half way through Zid, you’ll be frustrated, tired out, awaiting the glorious moment when the excruciating pain of watching Zid will finally be over and done with. Yes, I hated it that bad!
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Rohan Achrekar is a crime reporter with the daily who is nursing a broken heart. Estranged girlfriend Priya has stopped responding to him. He needs to move on and to initiate that he takes a home in the woods. Maya, the daughter of the landlord has an air of mystery to herself. She is positively smitten by him and can’t get enough of him. Amidst all this, after a drunken night the two have an accident where Nancy is killed. Nancy is the younger sister of Priya. Maya and Rohan shush up on it and run away from the spot. Story leads to a series of mishaps and murders and Maya’s obsession for Rohan keeps growing.
Is jealousy leading her to murder those close to Rohan or is it all a botched up plan of Rohan and Priya to resolve permanently some old sibling rivalries?
Zid Review: Script Analysis
I am someone who has fed on Jeffery Archer novels and thrillers are something that is an overdone genre. If your brains haven’t depleted from watching all the crassy films, you’ll know what line of thought is headed where in this film. Rohan aka Ronnie is a crime reporter who is getting over a breakup. He moves to a desolate home in the woods which is owned by Maya along with his dog Bobby. It’s not long before, Maya begins obsessing about Rohan or as they say in psychoman’s world ‘falls in love’.
Obsession in love in Bollywood can fetch better examples. From Darr to Pyaar Tune Kya Kiya, they were all better made films about the same theme, simmering with better intensity, had a more powerful drama. But Zid lacks that novelty and hence it comes up with nothing interesting. Initially, Maya seems like a ghost but that track too fizzles out soon after. Ofcourse, giving a thriller paranormal angle harms its story but Zid could have had a better culmination in that hazy angle.
The love story between Rohan and Maya seems a figment of his imagination and for the girl’s obsession to be that intense, the attraction from her side wasn’t unleashed enough. The climax or anticlimactic ending too was something anyone sensible would have playing in their mind. I wish the script writers had a better reading stock so that their film wouldn’t be this narrow in its thinking.
Zid Review: Star Performances
Manara is radiant to look at. Resembling Parineeti Chopra a lot in many ways, the actress misses the enthusiasm and expertise of her sisters. She needs a good deal more of experience before she attains the same.
Karanvir is quite competent in comparison. Though his acting too can do with some polishing, the actor has done a decent job.
Shradha Das in her minuscule role was good and shares quite a sparkling chemistry with Karan even if it hardly has any screen space.
Mohan Kapoor is a veteran and though barely used he was great.
Zid Review: Direction, Editing and Screenplay
Vivek Agnihotri had found a fan in me with Buddha In A Traffic Jam but the filmmaker’s stark disparities in the standard of films shock me. He is on extremes. Either he is bloody brilliant or when he is bad or mediocre, he is way below his caliber. I trust him to make a better film, but Zid was plain dumb. I understand the story isn’t any genius but the director often structures the film such that it can run chills down your spine. The first point of put off is its depressing setting. Gloomy and raining; I stop to wonder does these stereotypes come with thrillers. The film is devoid of light and colors. The screenplay isn’t fast enough for a thriller and the build up is more irritating than enticing. Once the climax was done, I bought the story giving it the benefit of being just another stereotypical thriller but the anticlimax left me so disappointed. It was anything but extraordinary, rather it left too many loose ends untied in the end. The music wasn’t up to my taste and the film’s end made me thank my stars for having the strength enough to survive it.
Zid Review: The Last Word
Zid is not cringe worthy, just plain boring. Selling itself in the garb of a few explicit shots, the film’s fabric did not back itself in a solid enough story. It doesn’t have anything exemplary about it, not its acting, story or the chemistry between its lead pair. The worst thing about Zid was its climax that was downright silly. It’s almost like a bunch of intelligent people thought of doing a crash course in making a silly film and Zid was made. I am going with a very kind Rating of 1 star.
Zid releases on 28th November, 2014.
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