Cast: Anil Kapoor, Fatima Sana Shaikh, Harshvardhan Kapoor, Satish Kaushik, Sanjay Bishnoi
Director: Raj Singh Chaudhary
Writers: Raj Singh Chaudhary, Anurag Kashyap
WARNING: SEX AND SWEAR, BLOOD AND GORE TRIGGER.
BOTTOM LINE UPFRONT:
A story of crime and its resultant retribution,Thar happens in a small village in Rajasthan called Munabao. Located on the border between India and pakistan, it is more than the metaphoric “no man’s land”
A stranger, Harsh Varrdhan Kapoor is the quintissential mysterious man-with-no-name who arrives to the area in guise of a antiques dealer. A horrifically brutal murder of a man, found hanging from a tree has Surekha, a cop, a few months away from retirement, and his assistant, Bhure, on the case. They must unravel the motive of such brutality, which seems extreme for dacoits and opium smugglers who populate the area.
Chetna, ( Fatima Sana Shaikh,) the wife of a local Panna, who the stranger Siddhartha hires for work finds a deeper attraction towards him adding to the complications of the intrigue of the plot that we were trying to figure out till the very last scene of the movie
IN THE KNOW
We were still trying to figure out what the story was till the end but what we kept repeating throughout was that Tharis disconcertingly violent. There are scenes of cruelty that we wish had trigger warnings. If compared to the violence levels we have seen in other Indian shows like Mirzapur, Thar takes it a notch higher by showing closeups of dead, peeled skin. What really works for Thar, however, is the humanization of its characters. The personal lives of Surekha and his relationship with his wife.
Anil Kapoor overshadows every aspect of this movie. If you don’t remember why he is the super star he has been for five decades of his career, he is here to remind you of it.
Fatima Sana Sheikh proves her mettle in her understated performance as Chetna in her quiet desperation. Her scenes with Jitendra Joshi, as Panna, her husband are brilliant portrayal of the dynamics between a man and a wife who despite being infertile, does not stop believing that she could deserve more. But even when she is ready to leave him for a better life with Siddhartha, she still cries to see him battered.
You almost don’t recognize Mukti Mohan.
The letdown of the script may be the moral over tone where the audience is told what to think. Anurag Kashyap normally wouldn’t miscalculate that.
Harsh is great as the quiet, understated Siddharth and delivers a satisfying debut while risking it with his superstar father.
Is Thar a Sholay ? It is much more nuanced and does cover the underlying issues of the status of women, their safety, the caste system and the drug trail in its narrative.
Shreya Dev captures some breathtaking sequences, Aarti Bajaj does her best to keep this to just 108 minutes which is so refreshing for Indian movies that we could go hug her.
Ajay Jayanthi’s background score is okay.
One time watch. Recommend strong gut for the violence
