Inteha (2003)
Cast: Ashmit Patel, Vidya Mallvade, Nauheed Cyrusi
Director: Vikram Bhatt
Music Director: Anu Malik
Synopsis: A vacuous and banal film which fails to thrill on any level - tripe.
Reviewed by: Faiz Khan

 

Vikram Bhatt is at his most comfortable making low-budget thrillers, usually films liberally borrowed from Hollywood and repackaged into semi-decent Bollywood entertainments—some better than others, some downright dreadful. While he clearly has a special fondness for this genre, it is mind-blowingly obvious that something has gone spectacularly wrong with Inteha, a vacuous and banal thriller that fails to excite on any level.

We are introduced to Nandini (Vidya Malvade), who hosts a radio programme and has a boyfriend patiently waiting in the wings. Before long, however, her ailing father introduces her to the half-sister she never knew existed, Tina (Nauheed Cyrusi). It transpires that dear old Dad had maintained a mistress throughout his marriage to Nandini's mother, and Tina is the product of that long-running affair. Mahesh Bhatt's lingering fascination with his own familial angst rears its head once again.

Having entrusted Tina to Nandini's care, Father promptly kicks the bucket, leaving the spoilt younger sibling entirely dependent on her newly discovered elder sister. Nandini embraces the role wholeheartedly, sacrificing her own relationship to become the family's new patriarch—or perhaps matriarch would be more appropriate. Tina, naturally, resents this arrangement, and who could really blame her? Yet everything Nandini does stems from genuine affection and concern for her sister.

Had the film ventured down the darker and far more interesting path of sibling rivalry, it might have had something worthwhile to say. Instead, it very quickly becomes another variation on the tired "Is he or isn't he?" stranger-from-nowhere thriller with the arrival of Ranbir (Ashmit Patel).

Bhatt offers little explanation, and we are simply dumped into what appears to be an obsessive relationship between Ranbir and Tina. How it began, why it developed, or what exactly attracted either of them to the other hardly seems to concern the filmmakers. The director rushes through these early scenes merely to establish the film's central conflict—Nandini's instinctive distrust of the mysterious stranger.

Ironically, the film might have generated far greater dramatic tension had Nandini herself developed feelings for Ranbir. Instead, she is so busy playing Mother Hen that romance never even crosses her mind.

Frankly, I couldn't see the attraction either.

Our supposed romantic hero spends much of the film looking as though he is desperately in need of both a razor and a bath.

The inevitable confrontation begins after Tina and Nandini witness Ranbir administering a savage beating to a petty thief. This transforms Nandini into an overprotective guardian angel while Tina becomes the defiantly idiotic younger sister who refuses to listen to reason and plunges headlong into her romance with Ranbir.

Determined to uncover his true identity, Nandini begins investigating his past.

Realising that discovery is imminent, Ranbir provides the film with one of its most unintentionally hilarious moments. Excusing himself from dinner by announcing that he needs to visit the lavatory, he quietly slips out of the back door, drives to a distant hotel, murders a man, returns to the house and calmly resumes his seat at the dinner table as though he had merely suffered an unusually stubborn bout of constipation.

The battle lines are now drawn between Ranbir and Nandini.

Can she prove that he is a homicidal psychopath?

Or will he succeed in whatever vague and evil master plan he happens to be pursuing?

Inteha is a thoroughly awful film. The moment you see the Vikram Bhatt–Mahesh Bhatt combination, you immediately begin wondering which Hollywood thriller has been plundered this time. This one bears more than a passing resemblance to Mark Wahlberg's Fear, albeit in considerably weaker form.

The film's greatest mistake is revealing Ranbir's true nature far too early. At no stage does the audience ever seriously believe that he might be anything other than an evil, psychotic killer. We may not know his motives, but we know exactly what he is. Instead of creating suspense, Vikram Bhatt removes it completely, leaving the viewer detached and increasingly bored. The revelation serves no dramatic purpose whatsoever and simply exposes another weak script from Mahesh Bhatt.

The plot holes are enormous and frequently laughable. Ranbir's mysterious henchman wanders around looking like the Grim Reaper, complete with hood and hook in hand, while the sequence involving the caretaker of Ranbir's former house is so ludicrous that it borders on insulting the audience's intelligence.

One cannot escape the feeling that Vikram Bhatt made this film merely as a favour and scarcely bothered trying to make it convincing.

Ashmit Patel gives an ordinary performance, attempting to emulate the menacing anti-heroes who have successfully played negative roles in the past but making very little impression. The character is entirely one-dimensional and does him few favours. Nauheed Cyrusi is reasonably effective, while Vidya Malvade, despite playing a thoroughly unbelievable character, leaves the strongest impression of the cast.

The songs are dull.

A pretty dire film, really.

Give me the Raj Babbar–Reena Roy Inteha from the 1980s any day.