Talaash

Inspector Surjan investigates a film actor driving into the sea in the middle of the night. There are no marks at the scene, no witnesses, and the only person who passed by is a sex worker. At the same time something else is going on at his house: they have lost their son and he cannot talk to his wife. She goes to mediums; he works nights. The subject is not the killing but a man burying his own guilt in a case file. The film builds the investigation as an escape; Surjan works in order not to go home and knows it himself. The form is built on Bombay at night. Rain, neon, wet asphalt. The narration moves slowly and does not meet genre expectations, which disappointed some viewers on release. Its most argued-over element is the ending. The film changes genre in its final section and lays clues for it from the start; on a second viewing certain scenes mean something else. That choice is unusual in mainstream Indian cinema and split the audience. Aamir Khan plays the inspector, Rani Mukerji his wife and Kareena Kapoor Khan the sex worker. Reema Kagti directs and wrote the screenplay with Zoya Akhtar. Who it is for: viewers who like slow Indian crime films and narratives built on grief. Who it is not for: anyone who will consider the late genre shift a cheat; the objection is common.