Gumraah Movie Review: One doubt I frequently keep having after being done with a Bollywood remake of a South film is this - do the makers of the original film put a clause in the contract that the remake should never, NEVER improve upon the original? I mean, you have a blueprint of a supposedly good enough film that you want to remake then why don't we see any improvement upon the original? With that mystery remaining unsolved, let me get ahead with my thoughts on Gumraah, the latest remake attempt by Bollywood, an industry where originality seems, well, Gumraah for now! Gumraah Song Allah De Bande: Aditya Roy Kapur and Jubin Nautiyal Make an Amazing Song in the Studio in This BTS Video.

Gumraah, for the uninitiated, is the official remake of the 2019 Tamil film Thadam, starring Arun Vijay in the lead. Gumraah is a very faithful adaptation, that save for ditching a romantic subplot, it has copied all the pleasure buds of the film and also the warts. So the film begins with the murder of a person who was alone at his home in the night. And in that very scene, we also see the face of the killer, and soon enough SI Shivani Mathur (Mrunal Thakur) also figures out the truth thanks to a very lucky selfie. So no suspense there, right?

Nope. You see, that face has two owners. One is Arjun (Aditya Roy Kapur), a well-to-do civil engineer who has everything going for him, from a well-paid job to a beautiful girlfriend Janhvi (Vedika Pinto). The other is Sooraj aka Ronnie (Aditya Roy Kapur, again), a free-spirited conman who is also a gambling addict. Both are apprehended by the cops, who are confounded as to who the killer is. Shalini has her doubts on the irascible Ronnie, while her senior ACP Dhiren Yadav (Ronit Roy) is hellbent on pinning the case on Arjun thanks to a past vendetta.

Watch the Trailer of Gumraah:

Gumraah is inspired by real-life incidents, some of them are mentioned in the closing credits. There is no argument that the premise is captivating and the suspense pumping, There is some smart story in there, but when things are done and dusted, and you look back, not everything comes across as intelligent enough. Which is a problem I had with the original as well. Think too much and the logic starts crumbling around with discovery of plenty of loopholes. Gumraah: Chahat Vig to Make Her Acting Debut in Aditya Roy Kapur and Mrunal Thakur- Starrer.

Still, Gumraah, like Thadam, is the most engaging when the focus doesn't get away from the investigation part. I don't think the reveal was a very shocking deal; the way the movie tries to sway your opinion towards one suspect makes that job a bit easier. Shivani's determination to catch the right culprit clashes nicely with Yadav's adamanancy to pin the crime on the other one. Ronnie and Arjun's conflicting versions add plenty to the intrigue.

Where Gumraah loses its plot is how it deals with the flashback portions that could have a better tone that fits the rest of the film. Also, the remake should have worked around some of the issues Thadam had - like making the cops less bumbling so that we can take their work more seriously, especially in the way how they handle evidence. If Gumraah could have taken the investigation part way more seriously, this could have been one great thriller to remember!

As for the performances, Aditya Roy Kapur shows marked improvement as an actor, performing his dual roles with enough dexterity to make them stand apart. Mrunal Thakur is okay, while Ronit Roy leaves a mark as the biased cop. Vedika Pinto is quite good in her limited role.

Final Thoughts

For those who have watched Thadam, Gumraah is like a revisit with most of the positive and all the negatives. For those who haven't, the police station sequences will leave you intrigued till the end, but is often hampered by its convenient deviations.

Rating:2.5

(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Apr 07, 2023 10:02 AM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).