Film Review - John Day

 

                    Revenge is His                 

Film: John Day

Cast: Nasseruddin Shah, Randeep Hooda

Directed by: Ahishor Solomon

Duration: 2 hrs 5 mins

Rating: * *

John Day is a film that starts off with a promise but by the end, it fritters it away. If one were to trace a graph, it would be like a parabola. It goes up, up for a while and then the slide starts. It has an interesting premise albeit inspired by the Spanish film Box 507 (2002) but output is not very satisfactory.

  

Nasseruddin Shah plays the title role of John Day, a bank manager with permed hair trying to overcome grief in his personal life. His young daughter died a couple of years back under mysterious circumstances and his wife (Shernaz Patel) is grieving even more. While he is taken hostage during a bank robbery, it throws some clues about his daughter’s death. Day saab then takes up the full time job of investigating the matter.

The other main character is a police guy (Randeep Hooda) a very angry young man. Among other tragedies in his childhood, he was molested by a priest and as a result he is so bitter. As a cop though, he is running with the hare and hunting with the hounds.

While the film keeps you reasonably interested in the first half, it still moves like a driver on a highway who refuses to move into top gear. The plot which tries to be too smart for its own good falls apart considerably, later.     

The characterization is not very assuring – yes John Day is avenging his daughter’s death but the manner in which he goes about it lacks conviction.  Same with the cop, he is a vicious guy, doesn’t show much respect for his girlfriend yet he loves her a lot and she likes to drink like a fish. Then there is lot of violence, tongues are bitten off and heads are beaten to pulp.

Though director Ahishor Solomon has lifted the story, the attempt is to do something different but it turns out  to be gravely flawed. There are no songs but Sandeep Chowta’s background score goes into overdrive at times. And what was the point of the rendition of Silent Night used during that long and pointless chase sequence?

Vipin Sharma as the investigating police officer has his moments. Randeep Hooda does full justice and makes the best of his role. Nasseruddin Shah as we know can hardly put a foot wrong and delivers yet another remarkable performance. But the rest of John Day is not in the same league.

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