Woman thou name is mystery! These words ring here again. Soaked into the spiritualism and sensuousness on their parallels, a woman's quest for real answers to life where desires confront with denials and where answers seem to appear as the sliver lining on dark clouds, comes an intriguing film 'Paap'. This is also Puja Bhatt's debut as director. Having spent so many years under her father Mahesh Bhatt's wings first as an actress and then as a producer, Puja is weighing her wings for a new sojourn. This journey has all the right sequences set for her; an intellectual father who doubles as the script writer for the film (though the basic idea has been lifted from the Hollywood flick 'Witness' and is not a new thing for senior Bhatt), an ideal husband Munish Makhija who, besides carrying her cell phone all the time, helps her find few Pakistani singers and musicians to lend a rustic feel to the film plus two budding performers in John Abraham (who is learning the things fast film by film though ) and beauty lass Udita Goswami (she is not only beauty but also shows her brain in her debut film). 'Paap' confronts with very basic idea of Indian beliefs. It questions the theory of reincarnation and also puts some doubts on those who are out to rule the present for the sake of future. The film appeals in basic idea but ends up looking like a tourism film made by Himachal Pradesh Tourism to promote the picturesque Spiti Valley which has been presented for the first time on the silver screen.
'Paap' revolves around Kaaya (Udita Goswami), a beautiful girl with great figure and greater ambitions that a village girl can dream of. She has been brought by her father (Mohan Agashe) who has a strong surveillance on her right from the day one of her life. She has been taught many lessons about this life and the life that one is going to have if he or she does good things in this life. She is taught that suppression of the earthly desires is the only way to attain eternal happiness. Kaaya agrees to it in principle, but when she is alone like many other girls of her age, she thinks of a prince who will come one day on white horse and make her his queen. She wants the company of that feeling which is known is sin (paap) in society.
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But Kaaya passes her life like that in peaceful surroundings on Buddhist monastery. One day Lama Noburu dreams of reincarnation of Lama as a child in Delhi, and asks Kaaya to bring the child to the monastery. Kaaya lands in Delhi, meets the six-year-old child Llhamo (Madan Bhiku) but Llhamo witnesses a gruesome murder though he was not the target. Handsome cop Shiven (John Abraham) handles the case and comes for the protection of Llhamo and his guardian Kaaya. Shiven decides to take Kaaya and Lhamo to a safer place from the madness of the city life. He escorts them to Spiti but is seriously injured in the task. He is forced to stay back in Spiti for few days. Kaaya tries every bit to make him feel fit. In between her fantasies start taking shape and she finds getting seduced for the handsome hunk around (who wanders in the chilling locations bare chest!).
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Well, not a bad story for a romantic thriller. But what about the narration? If you make a thriller then it has to be with a fast pace. And it is where 'Paap' falters most. The film moves at a very slow pace and the background music does more harm. Imagine a song like "Garaj Baras" being played when the goings of the story are so tough. The parallels drawn to showcase two different worlds are also not contrasting enough. Puja as a director has tried to create some unseen frames in the film and she gets great help from her cinematographer Anshuman Mahaley. Anshuman has captured the beauty of Spiti better than the sensuousness of Udita. His photography can give her run for the money that has been spent in shooting documentaries for National Geographic Channel. Was he told he is making a feature film and not a documentary on Himachal Tourism? The film has a very good setting in Spiti Valley and has moments to cherish. Puja emerges as a good director and can do better in near future even if his debut film fails to generate much heat at the box office.
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Among actors Udita Goswami brings lots of surprises with her looks. This lasso from the modeling world works better than her contemporaries. The homework hasn't been done well as her looks remain too urban to be taken as a village girl of Spiti. Her skin show during her leisure baths fails to create reality. The ambience should have been more erotic if the intention was to titillate the viewers. John also puts in lots of efforts to look a police inspector though he is taking too much of time. He should try to be more emotional next time as required by the happenings around him than to sticking to some copybook looks. There are also some irritating moments in the film when it comes to mixing. Most often than not you find the people on the screen talking on different channels and it looks clear that dubbing has been done on different schedules for different actors.
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Niranjan Iyengar writes some good lines in dialogues, but the effect would have been better if we could have some more known faces on the screen. Madan Bhiku, the child, is the discovery of the film. He acts with so ease that he must collect an award or two as the best child performer of the year. Music of the film is also not excellent as it has been in Bhatt films over the year though it fits with the mood most of the times. The very unplanned publicity has done more harm to the film than anything else and it is becoming repetitive day by day for films from the Bhatt stable. The film can only have some hope in the multiplex audience that has a better choice in 'Maqbool' this week. The film will find it very hard to find the patrons in interiors as it has little for masses to watch a film like 'Paap'.
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