Right Yaaa Wrong

One more Bollywood thriller is now available for watching. However it is not the routine run of the mill suspense-thriller. It is not an original story either. The narrator has borrowed the theme from the movie - Above Suspicion. All the same, he can be given the credit for indianizing it and making a grossly watchable thriller for the Indian Hindi movie audience. The director has revealed the suspense just after the crime. Leave aside making it a whodunnit mystery, he has not even allowed it to remain a howdunnit mystery. Audience is well aware of who did it and how did it, much earlier than the climax of the movie. Nevertheless the movie is interesting and able to make the audience sit on their seats till the last scene.

Sunny Deol plays the usual ideal(and superman like capable) cop who works in association with his colleague cum close friend, Irrfan. In between the initial action sequence of Sunny, the director starts unfolding the plot as if he is in a hurry. The infidelity of Sunny's wife and the loose character of his cousin give a hint of the forthcoming storyline. However a paralysed Sunny's making a scheme for his backstabbers to implement which should result in his own death, confuses the viewers, albeit for a very short while. This is the interval. Soon after the interval, the twist in the tale is very much within in the knowledge of the audience. Here the narrator demonstrates his commendable skill to maintain the interest of the viewer for the remaining part of the movie. Irrfan comes into active role, accusing his friend and colleague to mastermind a cold-blooded double murder and vows to get the guilty booked. Konkona Sen Sharma, his sister, enters the screen in the role of a sympathetic lawyer believing in the innocence of Sunny. Investigation, interrogation and trial scenes follow culminating in exoneration of Sunny and mental break-down of his dutiful friend, Irrfan who feels defeated and wounded with a painful sense of not being able to protect the honour of the law of the land.

The beauty of the narrative is that it fully justifies the title of the story. There are difficult moments in an otherwise straightforward and clean-hearted person's life too when he faces the moral dilemma of deciding what is right and what is wrong. Flowing with the events of the movie in the post interval session, the viewer starts feeling that both the leading gentlemen are right in their own ways and none of them can be labelled as wrong. Sunny's making his enemies work upon the plan of their own murder, mistaking it to be the plan of Sunny's murder, is simply breathtaking. And after the murder(s), the happenings and the developments in the story envelop the attention of the viewer in a different manner because the cat and mouse game between Irrfan(the cat) and Sunny(the mouse) is different from n number of such games shown in other movies. The cat and the mouse are emotional for each other and the bone of contention is only their individual perspectives of right and wrong and the storyteller has added spice to the already interesting tussle by bringing the cat's sister, Konkona on the side of the mouse. Despite lack of mystery or suspense, the eagerness remains for the climax. However the climax, though not a let down, is not so impressive as it should have been after a sensational court-room drama.

The events related to the double murder, reminisce me of a 1986 Sanjeev Kumar starring thriller - Qatl as well as another Sanjeev Kumar starrer of 1980, Be-reham alongwith Maharathi released in 2008 and of course, the Perfect Murder with its Bollywood takes on like Aitbaar, Hamraaz and Vaada. Yet it resembles them only in bits and pieces and overall it is able to carve a different niche for itself.

Right Yaaa Wrong is a food for thought also. Can ethical values and laws of the land be considered as absolute in their own right or they need to be given a second look according to the tricky situation at hand demanding resolution? Should an honest, sincere and loving person not be given a chance to judge them differently when life compels him to do an unethical thing or take the law in his own hand? And how should a dutiful cop think? Should he allow himself to get carried away by the noble and virtuous personality of the criminal or the etiology behind his crime and become a silent party to his crime by not performing his sacred duty of catching the law-breakers and presenting them before the court of law? The answers are not easy.

The lead characters - Sunny, Irrfan, Konkona, Eesha Koppikar as the unfaithful wife and the actor playing the backstabbing cousin; all have played their parts with utmost sincerity. Irrfan as always, is able to steal the show with his genius. Sunny has been given a chance to exercise his old and well-known action talent in the beginning part of the movie which he has done well, making his action fans happy. But more importantly, he has done full justice to the real, meatier role of a cheated husband and a loving 'n' caring father in the later reels of the movie as well. Full marks to him. Deepal Shaw(lady police officer), Suhasini Mulay(magistrate) and Govind Namdeo(public prosecutor) are also first rate.

The technical departments of the movie are up to the mark. Editing has made the movie crisp and engrossing. Sunny's wardrobe also needs a mention. The dresses selected for him give him a younger(though he is 53 years now) and smarter look.

Overall a good movie. Doesn't matter that it is a copied one.

Coming from the house of "Mukta Arts" one would expect a quality cinema. Lets not forget the glorious days when they entertained us with Hero, Karma, Ram Lakhan, Saudagar, Khalnayak etc. Right Yaaa Wrong (I hate the numerology fetishism Bollywood has succumbed to!) barely misses a mark to qualify itself as a B-grade thriller thanks to Sunny Deol, Irfan Khan and Konkana who have lent their names to this project. A suspense-thriller strongly warrants 100% from the writing department and a taut execution - precisely its here the movie falters. In addition it succumbs to the typical Bollywood melodrama making it even worse.

ө Sunny Deol:: The action-scenes donning the cap of the cop was good. The moment he is confined to wheel-chair, the character loses the punch.

ө Irfan Khan:: As usual "the devil may care" attitude to the camera works in his favour, and Mr. Irfan knows it. Good performance if not excellent.

ө Isha:: Passable.

ө Konkana:: Why was she there in the first place?

ө Deepal Shaw:: I guess the romantic track with Irfan Khan got chopped on the editing table. She would have nearly qualified for a blink-n-miss role.

ө Parikshit Sahni:: Now this one was a real blink-n-miss appearance.

The cat-and-mouse game between the lead actors was so childish and so were the court-room scenes (straight out of 1970's, if I dare say!).

Be rest assured the TV rights will be sold asap to recoup as much moolah as possible, so I recommend you watch it then and make your own judgement if I was Right Ya Wrong.

Sunny seems to get it right this time. He underplays his part beautifully. But it is Irrfan who lights fire in water and emerges the scene-stealer. He is excellent all through the second hour. Konkona stages an entry in the post-interval portions and makes a stunning impact in the courtroom sequences. Eesha Koppikhar is first-rate. Arav Chowdharry Sunny's brother enacts his part with conviction. Come to think of it, a plot like RIGHT YAAA WRONG is not easy to pen and narrate. The conflict between two thick friends and how they find themselves on the opposite sides of the law ought to be handled with gloves. Most importantly, when the tension reaches its peak, the culmination has to be razor-sharp and concurrently, justify both the sides' point of view. Fortunately, RIGHT YAAA WRONG hits the right note. On the whole, RIGHT YAAA WRONG is a powerful thriller, with a knockout second half. However, the film faces strong opposition from two quarters .

It has become common knowledge that Pathak's 'Right Ya Wrong' shamelessly rips off 'Above Suspicion'. Thus, the writers do not deserve much credit. Normally I tend t avoid rip-offs, but since it stars Ishaa Koppikar and Konkona Sen Sharma, I made an exception. Considering that this is a Sunny Deol film, one can expect some 'dishum-dishum' (translation: tacky Bollywood fight scenes) but the good thing is that it's toned down and once the movie moves passed that phase, it stays in thriller mode. The execution isn't exactly sophisticated. The writing is quite amateur (even though it's ripped off). Sunny Deol is a little too old for the part but where acting is required, he's surprisingly subtle and pulls it off. Ishaa Koppikar is very convincing as the adulterous housewife. Irfan Khan is passable. In all fairness to him, the characterization was poor. Konkona Sen Sharma is wasted. I wonder what an actress of her calibre saw in such a half-baked role.

To start with, the promotion was pathetic and the promos were bad. The title was never heard of and the lead hero was out of the lime-light. So, it was all dark before "Right Ya Wrong" finally got released this Friday after being in the making for two long years. But, perhaps it was all for the good, as the movie surprisingly proves to be a lot better than what was being expected by the viewers.

With a mild first half and an explosive second hour, the movie has everything ranging from a well planned murder to an absorbing court room drama. At first, it moves quite similar to many seen before routine cop flicks, but soon goes on to unfold new mysteries, plans and high tension drama which keeps you glued to the screen post intermission. So, in short the movie is a well worked upon crime thriller coming out of Bollywood after a long time.

But WAIT! There is a twist here in the proceedings…..But let me first introduce you to a few lines about the main plot of the movie:

"A Cop is paralysed in a shooting and is unable to walk. His misfortune brings him sympathy which he uses to devise a plan to rid himself of his unfaithful wife and her lover."

"But another officer starts suspecting that this well- respected former policeman, paralyzed after a shootout, is planning an untimely demise for his unfaithful wife."

Now what's the twist here? The twist is that the movie which successfully manages to impress with its engrossing second half and well written sequences towards the climax is not based on an Original Storyline. It is completely inspired from a western flick and the above few lines about its main plot prove it all.

Actually, the lines mentioned above are not about the basic storyline of "Right Ya Wrong" but they are in reality taken from the IMDb page of the movie called "ABOVE SUSPICION" (1995) starring Christopher Reeve in the lead.

Chek out at : http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0109034/

The moment I came to know about this acute similarity between the story- plots of these two movies, I felt sad and cheated as I really wanted to praise "Right Ya Wrong" as an Original Work. But Bollywood seems to be still caught in the web of its decades old bad habit of copying and may be that was the reason the movie was given such a low profile and effortless release from its production house.

Frankly speaking, writing a detailed review of a movie which is nothing but a copy of someone else's hard work is quite a complicated job for me. In fact, how can one comment on the script and sequences of a movie, which are entirely borrowed from another crime drama of the past and have no original contributions coming from its writer & director. As a matter of fact, one can only write about the technical achievements of such projects since rest all (the script, the scenes and the story) is nothing but copied in the first place.

So technically, "Right Ya Wrong" is a fine crime thriller which captivates the viewer, especially post intermission. It has a well directed climax in the form of an enthralling court room drama with many exciting moments to enjoy. Though the movie is not perfect and has its own flaws at certain places, but still it's surely much better than many recent crime thrillers presented before us.

Performance wise, Irrfan Khan is at his best as the honest cop and scores above all in the cast. He simply sets the screen on fire with his unique style of dialogue delivery and facial expressions. Sunny Deol is cool & calm in his role of a crime master and looks fresh on screen after a long gap. Both Konkona and Eesha excel in their limited scenes. Arav Chowdhary as Sunny's brother plays his part with confidence and the child playing Sunny's son leaves an impact. Deepal Shaw has nothing much to do in her cameo. Thankfully the movie has only one song in its narration and that's too a routine one. But Background score and Camera-work keep giving you the feeling of an outdated project at regular intervals.

In short, Director Neerraj Pathak, delivers a sharp crime thriller with a wisely chosen cast. His skillful direction shines on the screen post intermission and in the climax. But unfortunately, instead of working on an original idea, he chose the easy but unethical way of copying a western flick, which works against all the merits of his otherwise thoughtfully titled movie "Right Ya Wrong". Hope he comes up with an original piece of work next time?

(Watch it if you like gripping crime dramas and simply don't care whether it's copied stuff or not!)