Vaada (2005)
Cast: Arjun Rampal, Amisha Patel, Zayed Khan.
Director: Satish Kaushik
Music Director: Himmesh Reshammiya
Synopsis: Potentially gripping thriller goes horribly awry (again!)
Reviewed by: Faiz Khan

 

Vaada begins with genuine promise.

A servant runs frantically from a large house.

The following morning, Karan (Zayed Khan) arrives to discover the dangling feet of a sari-clad woman suspended in the kitchen. Moments later, a blind man named Rahul (Arjun Rampal) slowly descends the staircase calling for his beloved wife, Puja (Amisha Patel), blissfully unaware that she now hangs lifeless before him.

It is an intriguing opening.

Questions immediately arise.

Is it suicide?

Murder?

Or something altogether more complicated?

Curiosity is certainly piqued.

Unfortunately, the film never quite fulfils that early promise.

As the police begin their investigation, Vaada retreats into an extended flashback told through the perspectives of its two principal male characters.

Rahul is hopelessly devoted to Puja, but his affection borders dangerously upon obsession. His possessiveness is so extreme that one half expects him to start whispering "Puja..." in the manner of Shah Rukh Khan in Darr. The similarities are difficult to ignore.

His rival, Karan, proves scarcely more stable.

After witnessing another man accidentally bump into Puja, Karan responds with extraordinary restraint...

by repeatedly stabbing the unfortunate fellow's hand with a fork.

Romantic jealousy has rarely been expressed with such enthusiasm.

Understandably alarmed, Puja distances herself from him, but Karan continues pursuing her until an unfortunate confrontation at her home results in her father (Alok Nath) suffering a serious fall.

In a fit of guilt and melodrama, Karan then proceeds to mutilate his own hand.

As one does.

Seeking guidance, he later encounters what appears to be his own conscience on a beach, who advises him to "be somebody" if he wishes to win Puja's love.

Apparently the quickest route to self-improvement involves emigrating to Switzerland.

There, Karan drives taxis, works tirelessly and somehow returns to India an enormously wealthy businessman, the film displaying only the vaguest interest in explaining precisely how this remarkable transformation occurred.

Meanwhile, fate has been equally busy.

Puja attracts the attention of Rahul, who promptly falls head over heels in love with her. On their wedding night she attempts to reveal the secrets of her past, but Rahul nobly refuses to listen, convinced that the past no longer matters.

Marital bliss follows.

Briefly.

While teaching Puja to drive, Rahul is involved in an accident that leaves him blind.

Later, during a business trip abroad, Rahul unexpectedly meets Karan and, blissfully unaware of their shared history, invites him to join his company.

The moment Karan and Puja unexpectedly come face to face again after his return to India is one of the film's stronger dramatic moments.

At last, the stage appears set for a tense psychological confrontation.

Returning to the present, the mystery surrounding Puja's apparent suicide gradually begins to unfold. Suspicion grows. Karan starts believing that Rahul may not be quite as blind as he claims, and what follows should have become a gripping battle of wits between two deeply damaged men.

Sadly...

it never does.

This is where Vaada squanders its greatest opportunity.

Satish Kaushik had the foundations of an absorbing psychological thriller. The ingredients were all present: obsession, deception, jealousy, hidden identities and a suspicious death. In the right hands, the material could have developed into a tense game of manipulation reminiscent of Joseph L. Mankiewicz's magnificent Sleuth, with each man constantly trying to outwit the other.

Instead, the screenplay repeatedly chooses the easier route.

Implausible coincidences replace intelligent plotting.

Far-fetched situations substitute for genuine suspense.

Rather than engaging in a sophisticated battle of minds, Rahul and Karan spend much of the second half stumbling through a succession of increasingly pedestrian confrontations that never generate the excitement they promise.

The disappointment lies not in what Vaada is.

It lies in what it could so easily have been.

Arjun Rampal once again struggles to bring much emotional depth to his role, delivering another performance that is disappointingly wooden. Zayed Khan fares somewhat better, largely because his character at least offers opportunities to display flashes of instability, even if his behaviour veers wildly between normality and complete irrationality according to the screenplay's convenience.

Amisha Patel, meanwhile, is given remarkably little to work with.

In truth, her most convincing scene may well be the one in which she plays a corpse.

The soundtrack does little to improve matters. Most of the songs simply interrupt the narrative, while the notorious Kurti Sexy sequence manages to combine a painfully forgettable tune with choreography and costumes that are memorable for entirely the wrong reasons.

Vaada is ultimately one of those frustrating films that constantly hints at becoming something far more satisfying than it actually is.

The opening promises a tense mystery.

The premise suggests an intelligent psychological duel.

The cast contains enough talent to sustain both.

Yet the screenplay continually undermines those strengths, settling instead for implausibility, melodrama and missed opportunities.

A sharper script, stronger performances and a little more faith in psychological suspense might have transformed Vaada into an engrossing thriller.

Instead, it remains a film remembered less for what it achieves than for what it leaves frustratingly unexplored.