Dhokha: Round D Corner Review - Kookie Gulati's Suspense Thriller Is A Big Time Betrayal To Audiences

Dhokha: Round D Corner has a long and interesting title, and a cast too - R. Madhavan, Khushalii Kumar, Darshan Kumaar and Aparshakti Khurrana. Bollywood is missing good thrillers because we aren't making anything originally unique, except for a few good thrillers in the last 5-6 years. Kookie Gulati isn't too familiar with the suspense thriller genre, yet he decided to make a suspense thriller with such a cast and such a storyline. Bollywood doesn't have Hitchcock, who can continuously make thrillers and manage to deliver most of the time, so we have to be happy with directors like Neeraj Pandey, who have a fantastic success ratio in the genre. Gulati's Dhokha: Round D Corner wants to trap you as a viewer from all the corners — there are four — but the cross connection between the four characters spoils the square. A wannabe good thriller ends up being an illogical drama because the characters that drive the force make no sense at all.Yatharth (R. Madhavan) and Sanchi (Khushalii Kumar) are in love and are a happily married couple, at least that's how the movie begins. The next moment, you come to know that Sanchi wants a divorce from Yatharth. Reluctant and disturbed, Yatharth leaves home after a heated argument, and a runaway terrorist, Gul (Aparshakti Khurana), enters the house to take Sanchi as a hostage. Inspector Malik (Darshan Kumaar) takes charge and tries to save Sanchi, but is soon left helpless as Yatharth opens up about Sanchi's terrible mental condition. A patient with delusional disorder, Sanchi, tries to seduce Gul with her sexy looks, but will that set her free from this trap and her husband as well? Dhokha will show you multiple Dhokas while making several revelations in the climax.Kookie Gulati's script is an attempted mixture of femme fatale and male fatalism that we have seen in the Hollywood movies of the 40s. I won't call it a copy of Jacques Tourneur's Out Of The Past (1947) or any Eva Gardner type of femme fatale flick, but Dhokha does take some things from those films to build a modern-day narrative. The problem is logical understanding of the characters. When you are making a thriller that has betrayal and relationship issues at its core, you must have characters that can generate sympathy from audiences. Dhokha has none. All the four characters fail to get sympathy from you by the time the film ends. Then you'll be like, why did it all happen? For whom? What was the motive? And did it have anything to do with emotions or empathy? For whom should you feel sorry if there's no generosity in any of the characters? Can anyone give a valid explanation for the pathetic use of the media? Why the hell does that anchor have to look so cheap and downgraded? Why the shouting and attempted spoof? Why does Khushali have to talk with a lusty accent and be a sex doll when you're trying to explore feminism? I think Gulati should have taken care of all those things, and then Dhokha would have really looked like a decent thriller.Talking about performences, R. Madhavan delivers a decent act, but his standard is higher than this. Khushali Kumar's debut might please the masses who love watching a lusty and vulgar heroine playing games around. Yes, she does have damn sexy looks and a glamorous appeal that steals your heart. The way Aparshakti Khurrana carries that accent is commendable, but I don't know why the writer had to write the dumbest character of them all for him. He would have looked so much better as a trained terrorist with a normal IQ level, if not high. Then comes Darshan Kumaar, the cop, with no variation in his expressions and who is extra loud for no reason. But Darshan did handle it better, otherwise this character would have collapsed. The supporting cast hardly has anything to mention.Dhokha: Round D Corner is not a big budget multistarrer film, but it is a well-made film from the production point of view. The sets do look old sometimes, because of bad cinematography and terribly edited colour shades, but never outmoded. Also, the music goes unnoticed. Kookie Gulati has a lot to learn in the thriller genre, especially while pursuing messy plots. One loophole can devastate an entire setup, and Dhokha had plenty of them. Not just on paper, but Dhokha: Round D Corner is an unworthy product on screen too. Gulati's feature film dictionary is not so promising, and Dhokha is just another chapter. The film lacks intelligent writing, and most moviegoers always think that a thriller has to be too clever. Dhokha will betray them for sure.