By Taran Adarsh, January 7, 2011 – 12:27 IST

This is something I fail to understand. Why do interesting ideas or one-page concepts fail to translate into a fascinating and captivating screenplay? I can list a number of films that boasted of attention-grabbing stories, but the excitement disappears as you watch the reels unfold. VIKALP, directed by Sachin P. Karande, suffers for this reason.

The Australian mini-series BANGKOK HILTON [1989] is fresh to this date. In Bollywood, the most famous interpretation of the mini-series remains GUMRAH [Sridevi, Sanjay Dutt]. VIKALP doesn’t really borrow from BANGKOK HILTON, but you can draw parallels with the plot. Besides, VIKALP also talks of hacking and terrorism, so that makes it all the more interesting.

BY BOLLYWOOD HUNGAMA.COM

So what’s the problem? Well, the writer seems clueless when it comes to doing justice to the subject material. What could’ve been a taut edge-of-the-seat thriller becomes a tame, bland and amateurish attempt in its latter reels. In fact, the sequences leading to the finale and also the conclusion of the film throw a spanner in the works.

Rishika Gandhi [Deepal Shaw], a docile, middle class girl from an orphanage, is a sort of prodigy in the field of computer education. She works in an IT company in Mumbai. Some goof up happens and she resigns from her job. At the same time, her personal life too gets a jolt from the blue when her boyfriend’s family accuses her of using their son More >