"Delivers good performance ... Perfect:" Indicine

Director duo of Abbas and Mustan (Baazigar, Humraaz, Ajnabee) are back with their new thriller titled Naqaab. Their previous venture 36 China Town was a disappoinment. So, with the Humraaz combo of Bobby Deol and Akshaye Khanna in the lead, have the Masters of Thrillers succeeded in thrilling the audience?
Naqaab revolves around the central character of Sophie (Urvashi Sharma), a sweet and confident young girl from a middle class family. Sophie is engaged to a multi-millionaire Karan Khanna (Bobby Deol). One night she comes in contact with Vicky Malhotra (Akshaye Khanna), who is a struggling actor. She feels for him almost instantly. This change in affections cause a rift in the relationship between Sophie and Karan Khanna.
Who will Sophie decide to marry? Is Vicky actually as straight forward as he looks? Is there some mystery behind the multi-millionaire Karan Khanna? Or is there some different story altogether which Sophie isn’t aware of?
Director Duo of Abbas-Mustan succeed in surprising and shocking the viewers. The movie moves at such a fast pace in the second half, especially the last 30 mins, with all the twists and turns that it takes a bit of time for the viewers to grasp and come to terms with the ongoings. Although the first half has some light moments, it disappoints to a certain extent. The songs form a part of the movie and blend well with the narration. The song that stays with you after the movie is ‘Ek Din Teri Raahon Mein’. The cinematography is good, while the dialogues are brilliant.
Some scenes in the movie that make an impact
- Akshaye Khanna’s date with Urvashi at the restaurant.- The scene between Urvashi and Akshaye, at his house. Fantastic.- The last 20 mins, when the mystery is solved, is very well executed.
A few negatives
- The scene wherein Akshaye Khanna steals food from Hyaat, has been ripped off from Vikram Bhatt’s Life Mein Kabhie Khabie.- The background music gets irritating, especially when the hidden camera is capturing the action in the movie.
Akshaye Khanna delivers a good performance, although he is getting repetitive with his facial expressions. His dialogue delivery and comic timing is perfect. Bobby Deol is excellent in a few scenes while strictly average in others. Debutante Urvashi Sharma is confident in front of the camera. She has a good screen presence and looks extremely attractive. Her body language and style somewhat resembles Sushmita Sen. Vikas Kalantri (Nayee Padosan) is average. Vishal Malhotra (Ishq Vishq, Dor) is good.
Overall, with a run time of exactly 2 hours, Naqaab partially succeeds as a thriller. But unfortunately, the thriller is not as convincing as it should have ideally been. Not in the league of a Baazigar, Ajnabee or a Humraaz, but better than most recent thrillers that have been churned out by Bollywood