A love story in the search of a philosophical pause (VIRAAM) goes horribly wrong in this uninspired and over plotted mess.
Writer-director Ziaullah Khan’s VIRAAM poses as a drama about love, greed and loyalty and fails to get any clicks. Shot in the picturesque locations, the story is about Raj Malhotra (Narendra Jha) a businessman leading a life of solitude. Raj keeps himself confined in the memories of his long-dead wife, Sunita (Monica Ravan). Suddenly a young girl Matun (Urmila Mahanta) comes into Raj’s life and things take vivid and surreal turns without any warning or scene development. The result is a ‘bheja’ boil of events that you wished should take a ‘viraam’ (pause) with immediate effect.
Lifeless, contrived and sleep-inducing there is almost nothing in this movie that can be singled out as an achievement. A maid suddenly appears in satin nightgowns to seduce his master without giving us a hint that she is interested. Trying to travel all possible terrains of emotions from love, obsession, seduction, loyalty, betrayal, redemption and guilt without bothering to get intimate with any one, the script of VIRAAM is a mismatch of sudden impulse and day dreaming.
The movie gets entangled in its own mess and too many subplots are seen fighting for their screen time making it an awkward movie watching experience. Adding more salt, pepper with chutney to the woes are the dialogues where Raj who is introduced as a true lover of his wife Sunita who has passed away ten years ago, one night is lying beside his young maid Matun and says “Aaj Sunita kitni khush hogi”. The stunned audience tries to find what makes him say so and what made a top businessman like Raj falling for a girl who he rescued and now she is seducing him at midnight and even keeping ‘karvachauth’, all is happening without any establishment to show the compassion.
Before taking ‘Viraam’ (pause)from this boredom the performance by Narendra Jha (we remember him as the father of Shahid Kapoor in HAIDER) and to an extent by Urmila Mahanta are natural in this plastic effort of a drama that unfortunately ends as a prolonged over plotted mess.
