‘The Killer’: Not that killing

The Killer

Cast: Irrfan Khan, Emran Hashmi, Nisha Kothari, Zakir Hussain
Director: Hasnain S. Hyderabadwala, Raksha Mistry

‘The Killer’ hit the screens on Friday. Just like any other Bhatt film, it was awaited eagerly. However, the Bhatt’s failed to give an original this time and ‘The Killer’ seems to be a direct lift from Hollywood 'Collateral'. The originality that was seen in 'Zeher', 'Kalyug' and 'Gangster’ was missing in this Friday released flick.

Even the music failed to do well as the previous movies. The Bhatt camp had roped in Sajid-Wajid for 'The Killer' but the music duo failed to live up to the expectations.

However, the film brings back the old genre of playing the cat and mouse game in Hindi cinema. The film refreshes memories of many films of Amitabh Bachchan -Vinod Khanna, Amitabh Bachchan-Shashi Kapoor and later Jackie Shroff-Anil Kapoor. I guess after ‘The Killer’, this trend will soon revive in Bollywood.

The movie is about Vikram (Irrfan Khan) who has come to Dubai to kill five witnesses of a crime. Vikram hires a cab for the night. The cabbie driver is Nikhil (Emraan Hashmi) who is an ambitious man. It is his greed to rise in life that lands him in being hired by Vikram and he does not know what the life has for him in next few hours. He thinks of Vikram as just any other passenger but soon discovers the other side of this man.

As soon as Nikhil discovers the real man behind Vikram, he wants to flee from his clutches but Vikram proves out to be cleverer than him. He doesn’t let him go unless his task is over. That is where the clashes between the two start. Vikram kills people and Nikhil is now a witness to all this. All the paths to run from this havoc get closed now.

Revolving in between is a love story between Nikhil and Rhea (Nisha Kothari). Rhea is a bar dancer and finds a perfect friend in Nikhil. But little did Nikhil know that even Rhea is in Vikram's hit list as she too has been a witness of the crime.

The film comes after a series of hat trick from Bhatt brothers. In terms of content, 'The Killer' may be termed as average. However, the technical department, especially the photography has to be credited. The editing and the music department disappointed the audience. The music of the film was not promoted well and perhaps this was the reason for its failure. The song ‘Abhi To Main Jawan Hoon’could have been a major hit like ‘Kajrare Kajrare’ if the people associated with the film could have come out with a novel idea to promote it.

As far as the actors are concerned, Irrfan Khan gets a ten on ten. Emraan too gives him a neck to neck competition. However, Nisha did not have much to do in the film. Zakir Hussain as Don leaves an impression in the short role given to him; the supporting cast fills the bill well too.

All in all ‘The Killer’ is an average movie. It doesn’t imprees the viewers like the last three Bhatt movies. But inspite of this it will not let a viewer down who comes to watch it.