To Sir with love!

Among the new names to dot the landscape of Hindi cinema, Nawazuddin Siddiqui has earned a unique slot within a very short period. After a long struggle, this artiste with a potential to upstage any big name onscreen with his noticeable histrionics made a mark, around five years ago, and is now well known among both commercial and alternative cinema. So much so, despite not many star-like abilities, he still enjoys a solo hero status and has films releasing across the country based on his crowd pulling power.

‘Haraamkhor’, a film which had got into the Censor’s crosshairs, is Siddiqui’s latest film, a delayed release in Hyderabad. Set in a small-town ambience, it shows a school teacher, played by the protagonist, who forcibly engages in a relationship with one of his girl students (Shweta Tripathi). All because, the pupil too gives him the lift by exhibiting a crush on him, which is resented by one of her classmates, who is also her counterpart in the tuition classes where she goes to.

Caught between this swirl of puppy love, forbidden passion and its aftermath, the film stays rooted to the milieu it represents, pretty well. The married man that our hero is, faces a storm of a suspicion at home when his wife intuitively understands what her hubby is up to. The emotional anchorage to the heroine, who keeps returning to her teacher love, is owing to her own familial circumstances, as she is shown to be a child raised by a single parent. Her father, a police official decides to go for a new alliance, which she is not comfortable with.

Embedded with such watchable potential, what could have been a gripping tale of raging feelings with a dash of melodrama, fails to ignite throughout its 93-minute running time. Siddiqui is predictable and is unsuccessful in putting an act, which makes him rise above the stuttering narrative. The amateurish, small-time feel to the film, which does not have any distinguishing highlight like a good background score or cinematography, pulls it down even further.

The climax, which is tame and juvenile to say the least, just adds on to the excruciating moments in the final reels, when director Shlok Sharma surrenders to predictability. This film has been a major draw on the festival circuit and if reports are to be believed, it has already recovered its costs in the first week of its running. Commercially, it may have to do pretty well to register better, for sure.

Film Name : Haraamkhor

Cast : Nawazuddin Siddiqui, Shweta Tripathi, Trimala Adhikari and Mohd Samad
Direction : Shlok Sharma
Genre : Drama
Likes : Running time
Dislikes : Very ineffective narration