Gumraah: A well-executed, edge-of-the-seat crime thriller

Gumraah Movie Review Rating: 3.5/5

This week, Bollywood brings yet another remake of a South Indian film to the audience. We are talking about T-Series Films and Cine1 Studios’ Gumraah. Headlined by Aditya Roy Kapur and Mrunal Thakur, Gumraah is the official remake of the 2017 Tamil-language crime thriller film Thadam. The original film was praised for its engaging plotline, brilliant execution, and excellent performances from the entire cast and turned out to be an instant hit at the box office. Will Gumraah meet the same fate at the ticket window? Our reviewer has seen the film and here is what he has to say about the same.

STORY: Gumraah narrates the story of two identical twins, Sooraj and Arjun Sehgal, who are dramatically opposite from each other. On an eventful night, Police arrest Arjun for the brutal murder of a man in his own apartment. Just when the police department thinks they have found the murderer, things lead to great confusion as Arjun’s lookalike Sooraj lands at the police station the same night. The police have two days to find out who the real murderer is. What happens next forms the crux of the story.

HIGHS & LOWS: The film marks the directorial debut of Vardhan Ketkar. It stars Aditya Roy Kapur in a double role while Mrunal Thakur plays Inspector Shivani Mathur and Ronit Roy is seen in the role of ACP.

It is great to see Aditya Roy Kapur in a double role for the first time. He does complete justice to both characters. His performance looks every bit natural. Mrunal Thakur and Ronit Roy's characters are not so well fleshed out. Having said that, Thakur does leave an impact in the second half of the film. She nails the cop character. Roy is a wonderful actor and has proved his mettle time and again. He does the same again despite the fact that his character in Gumraah suffers from poor writing. Vedika Pinto is seen in a small cameo. Again, it is not a well-written character but she does best in whatever screen time she gets.

The direction and storyline of the film are slow in the first half, but things gather pace and how in the second half. Debutant director Vardhan Ketkar is promising and one can expect great work from him in the future.

The editing of the film is crisp. Gumraah is not a linear story. There is a lot of back and forth, but the taut editing ensures that it does not break the flow of the story. The dialogues and screenplay are good and so is the cinematography of the film.

FINAL VERDICT: Gumraah is a well-executed nail-biting crime thriller that keeps you on the edge of your seat. Debutant director Vardhan Ketkar takes out brilliant performances from the cast. Even if you have seen the original film Thadam, Gumraah still makes for an engaging watch. I am going with 3.5 stars.

Watch Gumraah trailer:

MOVIE CREDITS:

Banner: T-Series Films, Cine1 Studios

Director: Vardhan Ketkar

Cast: Aditya Roy Kapur, Mrunal Thakur, and Ronit Roy

Runtime: 127 Minutes