Talaash

The movie opens with a random accident involving a popular film star that seems to defy all explanation. It also introduces the main protagonist, Inspector Shekhawat (played gloriously by Aamir Khan). The rest of the movie details how the good inspector peels away the mystery surrounding the accident. Along the way, he also battles his own demons in the form guilt for his child's untimely death in an accident.

The movie is scripted well enough to keep you interested all the way to the end, even if the end if a tad bit tame.

Five-star performances from all the leading characters ensures that you are sucked into the mood and world that Reema Kagti creates. Nawazuddin Siddiqi gives another stellar performance to follow-up on his performance in Gangs of Wasseypur. Rani Mukherjee redeems her acting credentials after the disaster of Aiyaa. Kareena Kapoor is competent. However, it is Aamir Khan who steals the show with a highly nuanced performance which I am sure he will rate among his finest.

The music from Shankar-Ehsaan-Loy is very complimentary and at no time does it intrude, as it is want to do in Hindi films, into the story-telling. Instead it is very much part of the story-telling and at times even takes things forward.

The movie is another feather in the cap of Zoya Akhtar who has penned the story and screenplay along with the director Reema Kagti. The credits for the dialogs are shared between Farhan Akhtar and Anurag Kashyap.

After the mindless films that preceded it during the Diwali weekend, Talaash comes as a breath of fresh air and bears a promise that Bollywood is not all about assuming that the audience is a collection of sheep waiting to be sheared.