Tarkeib (2000)
Starring: Nana Patekar, Tabu, Shilpa Shetty, Aditya Panscholi
Director: Esmayeel Shroff
Synopsis: Murder mystery based on a true story loses its way very rapidly after first half
Reviewed by: Ali Khan

 

A young woman is found brutally murdered, her body dismembered into small pieces and, most disturbingly of all, her head missing. Despite the efforts of the local police, the investigation quickly reaches a dead end, forcing the authorities to summon special investigator Jasraj Patel (Nana Patekar) to unravel the mystery.

As Patel begins piecing together the victim's final days, the list of suspects grows alarmingly. Everyone appears to have a motive, everyone seems capable of murder, and gradually the investigation evolves into a classic whodunit.

Murder mysteries have always been something of a rarity in Bollywood and, for that reason alone, Tarkeib initially comes as a welcome change. Director Esmayeel Shroff handles the first hour with admirable confidence, carefully introducing suspects, planting clues and maintaining enough suspense to keep the audience genuinely involved. Patel's methodical investigation unfolds at a steady pace, and for a while it appears that Bollywood may finally have produced an intelligent detective thriller.

Sadly, the longer the film continues, the more the screenplay begins to unravel.

What starts as an intriguing mystery slowly collapses under the weight of its own inconsistencies. Flashbacks introduce a succession of plausible suspects, each one apparently building towards a carefully constructed resolution. Then comes the climax, which simply sweeps away much of what has gone before.

Motives are abandoned.

Character development is discarded.

Plot threads disappear altogether.

Rather than rewarding the audience for paying attention, the screenplay seems intent on undoing its own carefully laid foundations.

If ever there were an example of how not to conclude a murder mystery, Tarkeib would make an excellent teaching aid.

The greatest disappointment is that the ingredients for a satisfying thriller are all present. Unfortunately, the script never rises above a superficial level. Loose ends abound, the characters remain frustratingly one-dimensional, and several storylines that appear important simply vanish without explanation. By the time the truth is finally revealed, the mystery has ceased to matter.

The cast can do little with material that never allows their characters to develop.

Tabu is reliably effective despite being underserved by the screenplay. Aditya Pancholi is almost entirely wasted, while newcomer Milind Soman fails to leave much of an impression, although the fault lies as much with the writing as with the performance itself.

Nana Patekar, however, remains compelling.

Even saddled with a rather one-dimensional investigator, he commands the screen with remarkable ease. Those piercing eyes, the measured delivery and his restrained intensity give Jasraj Patel a presence that elevates scenes which might otherwise have fallen completely flat. Few actors possess such effortless screen charisma.

Ironically, that very consistency had become something of a trap for Nana by this stage of his career. He was increasingly being cast as variations of the same brooding, morally driven authority figure, and while he continued to excel, one couldn't help wishing someone would offer him something radically different.

Murder mysteries have traditionally struggled to find an audience in Bollywood, and Tarkeib seems unlikely to reverse that trend. It begins with genuine promise but steadily undermines itself until an inept finale destroys much of the goodwill it has carefully built.

A mystery that starts intriguingly but ultimately leaves far too many questions unanswered—and not in the way a good thriller should.