Taapsee’s ‘thriller’ is cold

Kabir Singh Bhandari

Gandhari is about a mother (Taapsee Pannu) who is searching for her kidnapped daughter in a town named Joypurra. During the kidnapping, she loses her eyesight temporarily and must blend into a world involving child traffickers in order to find her daughter.

Actors’ performances

Taapsee’s fight sequences remind one a bit of her breakout action sequence in Baby (2015), which got her noticed, but we only get to see a glimmer of it.

Mita Vashisht, whom I found superb in Delhi Crime 3, makes her presence felt in her first scene itself, though later on, there’s not much scope for her character. It’s welcoming to see Jatin Sarna as a no-nonsense cop, but again, his role ends up being one-dimensional. The same goes for Ishwak Singh and Chhaya Kadam, though Chhaya’s role gives her enough scope to display her acting chops.

Swastika Mukherjee probably has the most effective makeup, which aids in giving her that darker vibe that her character essays. It was an eyebrow-raising surprise when, after God knows how long, one got to see Prashant Narayanan in a role, a negative one, though by the time he steps in, it’s way beyond late to save the movie. However, he definitely does justice to whatever little time he is given in the end.

Story and direction

While Gandhari serves as an important reminder regarding the modus operandi of kidnapping gangs, and hence not to leave your children out of sight in crowded places such as markets and railway platforms, the film packs no punch. The story really goes nowhere. You keep waiting, as the clock keeps ticking, for the moment when it would finally pick up, but it never does. The whole Behrupiya angle could have been a sensational way to uplift the story, but it is wasted.

FPJ verdict

Gandhari basically goes nowhere and gets lost with aimless wandering. While the premise it prepped us for was so promising, it ultimately ends up going nowhere at all.

Title: Gandhari

Director: Devashish 

Makhija

Cast: Taapsee Pannu, 

Ishwak Singh, Swastika 

Mukherjee, Chhaya Kadam, Mita Vashisht, Prashant 

Narayanan

Where: Netflix

Rating: HH