RUKH (Movie Review)

RUKH: Sometimes Losing is Winning!

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Reviewer’s Thumb Mark

Atanu Mukherjee’s maiden film has a kind of gloominess throughout, not just on the screen but it also seeps into you slowly. It’s the story of Diwakar Mathur (Manoj Bajpayee), a businessman who runs a leather factory with his friend and partner Robin (Kumud Mishra). The film begins at the dinner table with his wife Nandini (Smita Tambe). His wife seems to have already a whiff of what is happening with him. But there is a kind of untold sharing of miseries between this couples. Diwakar is constantly engaged mentally as if he is trying to loosen the knot that is tightening around his neck day by day. Both Diwakar and Nandini are in agreement that they need to keep Dhruv (Adarsh Gourav) their son away from all these troubles. Dhruv has been sent away from home to a boarding school because he is a short fuse and had some issues with his classmates and was expelled from his previous school.

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Meanwhile, Atanu Mukherjee is successful in keeping the audience thinking about what might have gone wrong because there are too many questions that pop up in our mind while watching RUKH – is it an affair that Diwakar is hiding? Is it some financial crisis that is troubling Diwakar? Or a trap, Robin has laid for him? By the time we get to know what it is, Diwakar is killed in a road accident.

The focus of the movie slowly shifts on the bereaved Nandini and Dhruv. For Dhruv. Every passing day after his father’s untimely death is like stumbling upon something new and sinister. His father death left Dhruv constantly trying to solve the mystery behind it. There too many characters around him that keeps his needle of suspicion shift from one person to another constantly. And Atanu keeps us engaged through Dhruv.

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RUKH has a story to tell which everyone can relate with. It is about what happens to a small time honest businessman in this greed driven market. The strength of the movie is its simplicity and, of course, its talented ensemble of actors. The weakness is that it is painfully slow and depressing. There is no happy faces around as if there is nothing good in anyone’s life at all. There is a fleeting moment where Nandini flips through an old family album that shows Dhruv as a kid in Diwakar’s arms but then it again to cement the sadness further.

Smita Tambe as the distressed wife and Kumud Mishra as a man involved nefarious deals in business and a less trustworthy friend are too good in their respective roles. Manoj Bajpayee as a helpless and overly stressed family and businessman does evoke empathy in the audience. What surprises us is about Adarsh Gourav as Dhruv and his acting skills. He constantly remains bewildered and suspicious about things and people around him. He very well displays his suppressed anger and his desperation to find an outlet is commendable.

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The songs ‘Hai Baaki’ and ‘Khidki’ are soulful. Arijit Singh and Mohan Kannan give voice to Siddhant Mago’s lyrics and Amit Trivedi’s music add soul to it.

But, however hard Atanu Mukherjee tries to narrate this story differently from the standard templates of Bollywood movies, it still doesn’t succeed to be edgy and gripping. After some time, you get tired because of the never-ending drama. Having said this, the film is a onetime watch but only for those who like to see a tiringly slow movie with a story to tell. It is not meant for the masses. So decide what you are – the ‘Aam Admi’ or the ‘Khass Admi’ who love watching such movies? Take your call.  

Life Connoisseur Movie Rating: 2.75 /5

Cast: Manoj Bajpayee (Diwakar Mathur), Smita Tambe (Nandini Mathur), Adarsh Gourav (Dhruv), Kumud Mishra (Robin). Bharat (Jayant), Pawan Singh (Hassan)

Genre: Thriller/Drama

Director: Atanu Mukherjee

Producer: Manish Mundra

Written by: Atanu Mukherjee, Akash Mohimen, Vasan Bala (Dialogues)

Music by: Amit Trivedi

Lyrics: Siddhant Mago

Singers: Arijit Singh, Mohan Kannan

Cinematography: Pooja Gupte

Edited by: Sanglap Bhowmik

Production Company: Emmay Entertainment

Distributor: Eros International, Drishyam Films

Release Date: 27 October 2017

Language: Hindi

Duration: 147 Minutes