Dhamaka

But, at the same time, the narrative also becomes increasingly predictable. As the taut thriller starts getting flaccid, you start picking up faults in the plot. When a film takes a high moral ground, the margin to slip also reduces. When a film that seeks to expose the artifice of prime-time news starts looking staged, it pains. The set design and cinematography are top-notch but the functioning of the newsroom, the motivations of the ‘villain’, and the actions of the officer of the anti-terror unit (Vikas Kumar) leave you unsated. After taking you to the edge of the seat, the climax is a tad disappointing. A few more drafts, a little more sharpness would have helped.

Ram Madhvani's direction is gripping. The storytelling is such that viewers can’t help but get lost in the world shown by the talented director. He also raises the tension levels very well, leaving audiences to wonder what will happen next. His comment on ethics and the quest of news channels to get the ratings up at any cost is sure to shock viewers. On the flipside, certain developments, later on, are difficult to digest. The sequence where Ankita gets an anchor from a rival channel to expose Arjun’s wrongdoings and even compels Arjun to speak to him on the other news channel is too much. This is especially because Ankita is shown to be worried about the ratings; such a move could have hampered the channel in the long run. The decision of Arjun in the climax feels needless as he did have a fighting spirit.

Dhamaka scales down any expectations that our own rulers might be held to account. We’re left with an suitably tense but predictable critique of the ruthless and exploitative news cycle and a gaping hole where the more incendiary message had been.

Though a loyal remake of the South Korean A Terror Live, which tells you the rot is pretty universal, Dhamaka embraces the Bollywood way of storytelling, which means every emotion, deception and redemption has to be accounted for, leaving little space for nuance. 'Pehle channel, phir journalism', directs a hard-nosed voice in command while also insisting on 'Sad music badhao' and 'I want that blood.' The irony of giving into the same formulism is lost on Dhamaka. Before confining itself inside a claustrophobic studio box and its strictly cyan, teal and gray detailing populated by alert cameras and a hawkish boss, a PDA-packed social media between prime time news host Arjun Pathak (Kartik Aaryan) and his reporter wife Saumya (Mrunal Thakur, channelling Preity Zinta's brand of effervescence in a guest appearance) plays out like a reminder of the happier times until the rosy flashback cuts to him holding a divorce file.

It is a theme worth exploring, but gets lost in the clunky execution. As the disgraced TV anchor who wants his prime-time spot back at only cost, donning zero power glasses ‘to look serious’, Aryan starts off well enough. As does Subhash, as the hard-edged TV channel boss with not a single empathic bone in her body, barking orders to ‘go live, go live’. But soon enough, you realise that the crucial elements of a thriller — the urgency, the tension, the terror that the characters on screen are meant to be feeling– are missing. That’s because everything that’s happening on screen feels contrived and improbable. None of the ‘breaking news’ situations, none of the tragedy unfolding on the damaged bridge, none of the rapid-fire action happening within the newsroom, feels real. The whole film feels like a set.

However, these peaks are punctured with some rather tedious troughs. For a film where the profession of the protagonist matters so much, it’s pretty disappointing how they get the in-studio action all wrong. A radio show which half way through the programme turns into a full TV broadcast just doesn’t sit well. A live chat between anchors of rival news channels as a full blame game plays out on TV makes things all the more absurd no matter how many instructions Amruta Subhash‘s foul mouthed boss character screams out. One can sense an attempt at taking a dig at the circus that prime time news these days has reduced itself to but sadly it remains a very puerile attempt .