'Neeyat' Seeks Inspiration from Agatha Christie and 'Knives Out', But Lacks Imagination or Flair

As the last few years have shown, these are not the best times for mainstream Hindi cinema. Few films have been able to draw people into theatres, no one seems to know what they are making anymore – is it a ‘theatrical’ or an ‘OTT film’? Can it be repurposed as a two or three-part series? Also, all those murmurs of how South Indian cinema is ‘overtaking’ Bollywood, the default, self-appointed mascot for Indian cinema. There seems to be an elevated sensitivity to anything political, topical, or in good taste. An air of fear shrouds an industry that is churning out the most cautious, banal and offensively inoffensive movies.

Few films will probably flaunt the confusion and rootlessness of the present era of Hindi cinema better than Anu Menon’s Neeyat this year, a film that riffs on Agatha Christie mysteries and the Knives Out movies by Rian Johnson.

Ashish Kapoor (Ram Kapoor) or AK – a defaulting ‘billionaire’ living in the UK, (clearly modelled on Vijay Mallya) – has thrown a birthday bash in his remotely-located mansion in Scotland. To celebrate, he’s invited a dozen of his closest (and beholden) friends and relatives, including his doctor friend Sanjay Suri (Neeraj Kabi) and his wife, Noor (Dipannita Sharma). They have a son studying to be a filmmaker, who at one point says Christopher Nolan is his idol and spends a majority of the evening indiscreetly (and much to people’s annoyance) filming everything from the merry dancing to bitter fights.

AK’s perpetually drunk brother-in-law, Jimmy (Rahul Bose), son Ryan (Shashank Arora), his girlfriend Gigi (Prajakta Koli), a confidant and healer Zara (Niki Walia), a niece he’s supporting (Ishika Mehra), an on-and-off girlfriend Lisa (Shahana Goswami), the sincere executive assistant Kay (Amrita Puri), and event manager Tanveer (Danish Razvi) - who smiles while saying “I will make this the most memorable evening of your life” as a red-herring you come to expect and second-guess in a film like this – form the rest of guest list.

Also among them is CBI officer Mira Rao (Vidya Balan) – who, as AK announces to his guests over the course of the evening – will oversee his extradition to India. The billionaire’s decision to surrender understandably comes as a shock to all his guests, whose wallets are about to get a lot lighter. So, when AK is found to have mysteriously jumped off a cliff to his death, everyone in the house becomes a suspect. And it’s Mira’s job to find out what really happened.

The screenplay, co-written by Menon, Advaita Kala and Girvani Dhyani, goes for deliberately anglicised, exotic-sounding names. Prajakta Koli’s ‘Gigi’ especially sounds like an alias trying too hard, which (to my disappointment) turns out to be her real name even at the end of the film. I can’t imagine someone called Savitri or Dayanand in such a setting [obviously mimicking the often ultra-posh English settings in Christie’s books].

If Daniel Craig went full camp with his Southern drawl or Kenneth Branagh flirted with the lines of believability in his Hollywood-French accent – Balan goes in the opposite direction. She makes Mira straightforward – except for when she rattles out trivia about inane things (such a sunflower allergy) like Vicky from that old children’s show, Small Wonder. She’s awkward about physical touch, and is not scared about owning up to the against-type physicality of a cop. Balan is a solid actor, but this is a performance that seems to flounder in the dark for bits and pieces of authenticity.

The premise of the film, which involved a mystery at a gathering of people, was a specialty of Agatha Christie and was reinvented in an excellent manner by Rian Johnson in his Knives Out films and the immensely enjoyable mystery-of-the-week, Poker Face (2023) starring Natasha Lyone. The bar is just too high, and Neeyat doesn’t even come close. Yet, what remains baffling is the lack of ambition in Menon’s film – so satisfied in adhering to the template, it doesn’t even try to be clever. Rahul Bose looks like the only one committed to hamming, momentarily reviving the otherwise dull proceedings.

In these films, one of the most integral sleights of the hand of the filmmaker is its casting. Using the audience’s perception of an actor against them can be a powerful tool in the hands of the director. In Neeyat, the ensemble is interesting but rarely inspired. It’s almost like the film is trying to hit all four quadrants of the market: with Balan being the ‘star’, Kapoor, Kabi, Goswami and Bose being talented ‘character actors’, Niki Walia being the familiar, yesteryear face triggering nostalgia, and Koli bringing her social media ‘relatability’ into theatres. This is by-the-numbers casting for a project, where despite landing decent actors, there’s simply no joy.

Especially if you have seen the likes of Michael Shannon, Edward Norton or Toni Collette having fun with their image as ‘serious’ actors in Johnson’s films. Balan, despite being one of the more perceptive actors, is almost mercenary-like in refusing to bring the slightest bit of irony to her performance.

Neeyat might claim to be a Hindi film of 2023, but there’s little evidence in the film to prove it. Given its vague allusions to the real world, like most of its contemporaries, Menon’s film feels like it belongs everywhere and nowhere. However, it does take a step forward in normalising the depiction of drug use and same-sex relationships. Even a small [mis]step can often become a giant leap in a mainstream Hindi film, especially one catering to an average Indian family. Of course, one hopes these flourishes wouldn’t feel self-congratulatory or like a progressive ‘statement’, but it’s more than what is afforded to us in male star-vehicles. Credit where it’s due, it made me smile for a few seconds – even if I yawned through the rest of it.

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