Inkaar written by Manoj Tyagi and directed by Sudhir Mishra, depicts a woman that has the ability and talent to rise up the ranks in an advertising agency that is home to competitive individuals who are literally dropped into a ring and must come out alive in order to prove themselves.

Sudhir Mishra sketched out the characters of the film rather judiciously. Maya Luthra, played by Chitrangada Singh, is a quick witted and confident advertising professional who finds her mentor in the suave and ambitious, Rahul Verma, played by Arjun Rampal. While Chitrangada’s performance is jarring with forced aggression, Arjun Rampal is surprisingly believable as a ruthless, go-getter CEO. His performance in this film has been a far cry from his regular fare of Ra-One antagonist category roles. The pivot of the plot is the sexual harassment case that Maya Luthra files against Rahul Verma, which opens the proverbial Pandora’s Box. The film progresses with the airing of some dirty laundry and the narrative adopts a sort of whodunit tonality.

Deepti Naval plays the role of a social worker who is brought in to review the legitimacy of the allegations leveled by Maya; Naval is the spark of brilliance and believability that the film desperately seeked.  Another stand out performance was by Vipin Sharma who embodied the role of ‘Guptaji’ with ease; Sharma had fantastic comic timing.

The first half of the film was pacy and had us glued to the screens, however, post the climax the film went south and fast! The film loses its sheen with clichéd dialogues intermingled with a confused screenplay. There were several loose ends in the plot and lack of a concrete conclusion to the film was disappointing to say the least.

Watch the film for Mishra’s valiant effort to bring to our attention an issue that hasn’t garnered any substantial concern from society.  Watch the film for one of Arjun Rampal’s better performances. Watch the film for superior performances by supporting actors. But if you are one of those cinema goers who get irked by lackluster plots and inconclusive ends, give Inkaar a miss.

MTV Rates – 2.5/5