Samrat & Co. Review

One Line Review: A worth watching crime thriller, full of riddles, twists and unexpected revelations, though lacking a bit in sophistication.

Positive Points: Strong and impressive protagonist character; creative storyline; unexpected twists at the end; better than usual cinematography.

Negative Points: Induction of certain characters not at all pivotal to the story; action sequences are a complete dud; could have been even sophisticated.

Plot: Samrat Tilakdhari (Rajeev Khandelwal) is a sharper than razor and a highly observant gifted private detective who is always in a search of a case which would be difficult to solve and actually challenge his abilities. He is aided by Chakradhar Pandey (Gopal Datt) a logically challenged quirky behaving side kick who is also a television personality. Samrat finally gets that much awaited challenging case when he is visited by Dimpy Singh (Madalsa Sharma) from Shimla who belongs to a royal family from the region.

She complains that since the expulsion of their gardener, the plants in their lawn are dying despite of all the plant and soil tests by horticulturalist showing zero problems. In addition, they are also experiencing paranormal activities as they are seeing apparitions in the lawn.

With his gifted observation powers and analyzing abilities, soon Samrat understands that things are not the way they look like. Soon the home patriarch Mahendra Pratap Singh (Girish Karnad) is murdered and things start getting ugly. Soon the detective is faced with the challenge of tracking down the criminal who is now alerted by his presence and is on a crazy murderous rampage. Samrat should now make sure that he is tracking down the killer before he does any further damage.

Direction And Other Technical Aspects: From the level that is expected from a Bollywood movie, this one certainly scores good. The events and the twists that lead to the conclusion are well fitted in the story. However, the film goes a bit out of the way when characters with no relevance are given center stage. The director Kaushik Ghatak has done a decent job in portraying the protagonist character and also making creating events that fit well into the film's base plot.

As for the cinematography, the film has sequences where the background scenes are changed while the characters are talking the same thing. This adds into the film's sophistication. However, the film could still have been better.

However, the fight scene at the end has been a complete dud. The action sequences do not match up to the sophistication and finesse of the film's creativity. The fight scene becomes one of the factors because of which the film stops short of going a level above.

Performances: Rajeev Khandelwal has delivered an impressive performance with his timing, his confidence and the much needed cockiness of the character. He certainly succeeds in portraying the protagonist impressively.

Madalsa Sharma is not at all impressive with her superficial and plastic acting. Lack of expressions is a big drawback here.

Not much known as an actor Gopal Datt performs the role of a funny and awkward side kick well enough to keep you entertained.

Rajneesh Duggal, who is popularly known for his protagonist performance in the 2008 film '1920', doesn't deliver impressively despite having a significant role in the film. His performance lacks the conviction and the strength that is seen in Khandelwal's role.

Music: 'Tequila Wakila' by Ankit Tiwari is the first song is groovy and catchy, but is not good enough to get you started. Sung by Chinmayi Sripada and supported by Mithoon and Arijit Singh, 'Shukr Tera' is a soft love song and is the best one in all of the film. The song 'O Humnavaa' is yet another love song with a strong Sufi influence. However, the song 'Sawaalon Mein' is the one which depicts the core of the film reflecting unsolved mysteries and puzzles. Sung by Shreya Ghoshal and Benny Dayal, this song represents the film.

Final Verdict: 'Samrat & Co.' is a good attempt to deliver a desi Sherlock Holmes like flick, where it does succeed, but stops short of gaining that ultimate level of quality due to lack of sophistication. However, the film does succeed in engaging the audiences in the thrill and the mystery of finding out the criminals. Unfortunately the film is also peppered with unnecessary dialogues and sequences that are not at all required for the plot. One may be left with the feeling that it could have been better.

Though we would say confidently that it would be paisa wasool day if you watch 'Samrat & Co.' instead of going for either 'Revolver Rani' or 'Kaanchi'.