Talaash: The Answer Lies Within (2012)

The film opens with footages from around Bombay. Bombay, crowded, colourful, with a dizzying variety of lives, myriad hues of reality and endless possible alternatives of perception. Night in Bombay. Adult DVD stores, people breathing-in marijuana, call girls lounging and throwing glances in street corners. Night stretches into midnight. The stretch of seafront caught in the camera is empty except for two homeless guys and their dog. The footpath adjacent to the seafront is clean and flooded by the amber streetlights of the night. A hawker cycles his way back home. Suddenly, the dog senses danger, howls and jogs off. In comes a car at high speed, breaks without necessity, turns and dives headlong into the sea. The homeless guys and the hawker gape in astonishment. A freak accident in the middle of a road devoid of any other vehicle. Morning takes over from midnight. Inspector Shekhawat (Aamir Khan) arrives to take charge of the case. Talaash, a neo-noir set in the streets of Mumbai is a grippy, engaging tale told in a neat, aamirkhanlike fashion.

Inspector Shekhawat (Aamir Khan) is a man with apparently a good career record and belief in values. He handles cases and people with good sense and respect. When he takes up the case of the accident of Arman Kapoor (a film actor) and plunges into questions of why and why-not, his personal tragedy of losing his son in a picnic mishap haunts him. In comes Kareena, a call-girl, who helps him out with clues to the case and listens to his sorrow of losing his son. One lead takes him to another until things start connecting and making sense.

The movie ends with the Inspector solving the case and coming to terms with his personal loss. Kareena Kapoor and Rani Mukherjee deliver good performances, Shernaz Patel as the neighbour with an occult gift has done a commendable job. The story is etched in realism even though the mystical part of life after death is integral to its storyline. The film is a taut psychological thriller with profound social angles between the lines. It is engrossing and satisfying.

8/10