You might be wondering the reason or the rationale behind my title for this review, which indirectly conveys a deep form of injustice being done.But, wait a minute, I can explain my point in the review.
As we know, director/filmmaker Sanjay Gupta's production house, White Feather Films, has churned out several notable or well known films in the past, be it Kaante, Musafir, Shootout at Lokhandwala, Dus Kahaaniyan or Jazbaa, just to name a few.
On a different note, several films get released each year and/or a span of several years but do not get noticed or gain enough recognition by the masses, be it because of an unknown starcast consisting mainly of newcomers, and/or poor performances by the artists and/or poor marketing strategy. Acid Factory(2009) is one such movie churned out by the same production house, but falls in the annals of those unknown or unheard films despite having an impressive and well known starcast and splendid performances, but fails in the promotion or marketing aspect.
Plot:-
The story begins in the city of Cape Town(South Africa) with a man(Gulshan Grover)who meets a Police officer(Fardeen Khan) and introduces himself as ACP Ranbir Singh. He assigns a task to him and gives him the name Romeo.
A couple of scenes later, Romeo wakes up in a dilapitated factory and finds himself confused and lost.In other words, he has totally lost his memory and finds other strangers too, such as a man who has lost his consciousness and is lying on the floor(Dino Morea), another unconscious man tied to a chair(Danny Denzongpa) and the third, who is wounded and whose arm is tied to the handle on the first floor(Manoj Bajpai), all of whom have lost their memory.
He then recieves a call from a man named Kaiser(Irfan Khan) who speaks in a firm voice and wants to know whether the job of knocking off someone is done or not. Moments later, he is assaulted by another(Aftab Shivdasani), who too is in a delarious state. The story continues with each of them trying to figure out who they are & try to assemble clues from within the factory.They even try to shout out to seek help from outside the factory, but in vain.Moments later, they are assaulted by a woman(Diya Mirza) who too is in the same predicament, but they manage to tie her up & quieten her.
In the meanwhile, Kaiser calls a lady, Mrs Sanghvi(Neha Bajpai) & blackmails her to deliver cash in order to free her husband, Sarthak(Aftab Shivdasani).She does as instructed with ACP Ranbir SIngh keeping track of her in order to nab Kaiser.But Kaiser manages to steal the money & escapes with a gun battle against the chasing police forces.
As time passes by, Romeo & Sarthak start getting faint memories of events that led to them being trapped in the Acid Factory.Sarthak then realises that he & JD(Dino Morea) are business partners and that Sarthak was going to sell their company & in order to avenge that, JD along with Kaiser, Sultan(Manoj Bajpai), Om(Danny Denzongpa) & Max(Dia Mirza) plan the kidnapping of Sarthak & hence they land up in the dilapidated factory.The ensuing resistance leads to bullets being fired at a deadly chemical tank which explodes & makes everybody faint, resulting in their loss of memory.
Once Kaiser arrives, he orders Sarthak to shoot & kill JD on account of betrayal.Sarthak does as said, but later Sarthak & Romeo plan to escape with a gun battle against Kaiser & the rest, with shots being fired at the same chemical tank which explodes & then history repeats itself.Fortunately, Romeo and Sarthak escape the factory in the nick of time & are rescued by ACP Ranbir Singh & his team who arrive at the scene & arrest the others
Direction/Performances/Others:
This movie is a remake of the 2006 Hollywood thriller, Unknown.I personally have not seen this movie, but do get a jist of how it might have been through the reconstructed Bollywood flick.
Suparn Verma, a lesser known director in Bollywood has done an awesome job of bringing a dark thriller to life.This is a pretty new concept in Bollywood, which to my knowledge, may not have been tried before. The idea of men being trapped in a factory, having lost their memory & are trying to bring the pieces together did have a lot of scope, with an underlying and deeply captivating kinda suspense filled plot.
Coming to the performances, each of the actors did justice to their respective roles.I somehow felt that Danny Denzongpa and Dino Morea could have greater scope in their performances as it did not seem punch worthy, despite being negative or grey shaded.
On the contrary, Gulshan Grover in a positive role as ACP Ranbir Singh was a welcome change & he has managed to surprise the audiences periodically with positive roles such as in the Ajay Devgan-Karisma Kapoor starrer Jigar(1994) or as Rani Mukherji's father in Raja ki aayegi baraat( 1997) or in the Emraan Hashmi starrer Crook(released in 2010, a year later).
However, Irfan Khan seemed to be the showstealer as his role of the mastermind Kaiser, had a kind of swag & style. He plans & plots with deadly execution & escapes chasing cops with ease.
Besides Irfan, Fardeen Khan, Aftab Shivdasani, Manoj Bajpai & Dia Mirza were quite striking in their roles.Dia Mirza, for the first time played a tough woman with grey shades, a striking contrast to all the other roles she essayed earlier. Manoj Bajpai, too along with Danny & Dino had a negative tinge to their respective characters & did them pretty well.
Fardeen Khan as the undercover cop Romeo & Aftab as the businessman Sarthak Sanghvi who is the victim of betrayal by his business associate were convincing enough. Aftab has tried his stint with action earlier, but in many of these cases, except a few such as Kasoor(2001), Red(2007) or Speed(2007), he played a simpleton or a young charmer, but this time, he essayed a pretty serious role with loads of serious action towards the end.
Neha Bajpai seemed dull and did not have any much scope to be noticed.
Music:-
The Music of the film was pretty catchy or noteworthy, but its fate suffered the same as that of the film. The songs'Yeh Jism', 'Jab Andhera Hota Hai', 'Raftaar' and their respective remix versions were released around a month or before/during the official release of the film. Anchal Datta Bhatia, Manasi Scott, Vasundhara Das, etc have lent their voices for the film.
Overview:-
The Movie is a silent captivator & a sure entertainer for movie buffs or those whose area of interest include dark or suspense thriller dramas. Acid factory is sort of a cult film, exploring a slightly different concept in terms of the plot, but has been executed in a way which will ensure that your money & time is worth it. More advisable to watch with friends than family.
