Twisty Turns:
The film starts with such routine man stalking-wooing-winning woman sequences, that it is impossible to anticipate what is to come next in Chor Nikal Ke Bhaga (the title comes from the children’s rhyme, Akkad Bakkad Bambe Bo) The film, directed by Ajay Singh, working with a script by Siraj Ahmed and Amar Kaushik, is like a nesting doll, you open one and smaller dolls keep popping out gradually, till the seed is reached.
Neha Grover (Yami Gautam Dhar) is an air hostess, who falls in love with a charming passenger, Ankit Sethi (Sunny Kaushal) after a few dates, giving credence to the belief that if something is too good to be true, it probably is. Ankit reveals a business failing that left him vulnerable to vicious gangsters, who are demanding their money– a sum so large he has to resort to crime to raise it. Neha agrees to help him smuggle diamonds from a gulf location Al Barkat to Delhi. It seems simple enough, a code shared, a diamond-studded phone switched and an unsuspicious stroll out of the airport.
The plane gets hijacked, however, by three masked goons, who demand that it be diverted to Kullu airport and a Kashmiri terrorist leader lodged in a Manali jail be released in exchange for hostages. Neha negotiates with the hijackers to keep the passengers comfortable, while Ankit tries to sneak into business class to access the diamonds, gets caught and has his face bashed in. Both he and Neha get increasingly anxious as the hijackers stalk the aisles and keep people in check, using violence when required.
Meanwhile, in Kullu, an intelligence official, Sheikh (Sharad Kelkar) and his men, try to figure out ways to save the passengers without actually releasing the prisoner. If it seems like a standard-issue crime thriller; it turns out nothing is what it looks like. The diamond smuggling is a weak McGuffin, but as every layer is peeled off, the clever plotting is revealed. If a viewer wondered why a character took a foolish decision earlier, a perfectly plausible motivation comes up when the time is right.
The character that lays out the plan with well-oiled moving parts, is prepared for every eventuality. Some script conveniences do creep in, but the action is so engrossing, and the many twists so surprising, that the minor flaws do not matter.
Sunny Kaushal is competent as a manipulative creep, who does not get to try too many variations, but Yami Gautam Dhar’s part is written with so many shades that one can gauge only at the end, what Neha is actually made of. No other actor has much to do, but they do their bits well, so that the two leads shine.
Without needless diversions, and keeping a tight control over the hairpin bends of the script, Ajay Singh crafts a smart and entertaining thriller.
(This piece first appeared in scroll.in)
