Inkaar Review Roundup: A No-No From Critics

"Inkaar" is a romantic crime story which stars Arjun Rampal and Chitrangda Singh in the lead roles. The Sudhir Mishra-directed film focuses on sexual harassment in the co-operate world. Despite its hard-core theme, the storyline failed to impress the critics.

Check out what critics have to say about the movie:

Shilpa Jamkandikar of Reuters said: "Sexual harassment at the workplace, office politics and the question of whether women can make it to senior management in misogynistic companies plague many professionals in India.

"To see all this depicted on screen that too in a thriller is a novel idea in Bollywood. Director Sudhir Mishra starts off racily enough in "Inkaar" -- portraying life in a trendy ad agency and sketching his characters along the way.

""Inkaar" has the seed of a good story but the characters don't turn out to be ones you care about, nor does the narrative grip you enough to keep you engaged."

Rubina Khan of Firstpost said: "Inkaar's promotional material was hot and heavy, with its exquisitely beautiful cast - Arjun Rampal and Chitrangda Singh, playing out bits of the sexual harassment theme of the film in the trailers and print advertising, and the movie gets right to it.

"The acting in the film is left to the beautiful Chitrangda Singh who is splendid in her performance, and the ensemble cast, in particular Deepti Naval and a character called Gupta, played by Vipin Sharma. The film ends on a strange note, not typical in the least, but bizarre would be the apt way to describe it."

Sukanya Verma of Rediff.com said: "Inkaar trivialises something serious like sexual harassment into a terrible joke. Mishra, a filmmaker who rarely wastes any time to get across his point,  grazes upon everything under the sun from gender-based politics/prejudices, blazing office rivalry, compromised work ethics to commitment phobia and misplaced philosophies (in needless subplots) but fails to construct anything concrete with regards to the story.

"So am I going to recommend why two sorted-out professionals are dumbed down to thick-headed fools and sexual harassment is just another day in office? I don't think so."

Aniruddha Guha of DNA said: "Sudhir Mishra seems to be in a weird space as a filmmaker right now. His penchant for simple storytelling and real, complex characters have resulted in some great films, and he tries to juggle his strengths with more mainstream elements in Inkaar. Nothing wrong with that, except that the result is an unfortunately botched attempt at portraying a relevant issue, even as Mishra struggles to strike a balance between style and substance. The film starts out with promise, but a jarringly loud background score, hammy actors and a cliched ending ruin whatever chance Inkaar had at being considered watchable.  

"There are rare moments in Inkaar that click, like Mishra cheekily referencing his own film, when at an ad film presentation for a condom brand, Verma comes up with the tagline, Iss Raat Ki Subah Nahi. The film, though, comes nowhere close to that, or any other, Mishra film. If you're wise, you'll refuse the offer to watch Inkaar at the multiplex near you."