Ankur Pathak feels Table No 21 should be watched for the reactive social commentary that it is, and should not be misconceived as a vigilante film.
If we leave aside a few embarrassing hiccups (read
Rajdhani Express) that don't even deserve to be accounted for, 2013 has begun on a hard-hitting note at the movies.
Table No. 21, the first genuine release of the centenary year of Hindi cinema is a psychological thriller that ends with a delectable twist, one which justifies the intent of the highly structured plot.
It not only conveys a relevant message, but does so without being propagandist about it.
The tables for Rajeev Khandelwal have turned. He's no longer the nonchalant interrogator placing vulnerable souls on the uninviting seat of
Sach Ka Saamna, but the candidate who may have to face his own moment of truth. And the truth, as they say, hardly ever comes easy.
Khandelwal plays a middle-class guy, jobless, and married to his college sweetheart (Tina Desae) for five years. An all-expense paid trip to the exotic Fiji islands becomes a life-altering deal for the passionately-in-love couple as a man who calls himself Khan (Paresh Rawal) engages them in a web-based reality show where the brutal severity of invasive questions rises with the dramatically increasing reward ( 7 Questions, 21 crores).
Each question is followed by a relevant physical task that is governed by a one-point rule: If you lie, you die. As cheeky as the line sounds, the premise is rather intriguing.
A substantial part of the film is an intense voyeuristic session as the lead couple is coerced into confronting the unflattering deeds of their eventful past.
What is of interest here is the invasive nature of the idea that the film is based on: you cannot escape your past, it will come back to haunt you.
It is essentially about two very different but inter-linked things and the thought-process
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that has gone into is remarkable.