Aggar Movie Review: Very Slick Indeed!

Anant Mahadevan's Aggar is quite in keeping with the thriller genre made famous by Abbas-Mustan. The film delivers on its promise has enough thrills to keep you glued to your seat for the better part of the two hours, which is the film's duration. The director does a very good job of exploring the darker recesses of the human psyche and the twist is fairly well worked in.

The only flaw, if one can call it that, is the ending. So far into the film, thanks to the screenplay by S Farhan, the ?thrill' factor works very well. But the ending becomes quite typical and clich?d. One ?knows' what will happen, and it does. The beauty of the film till before the end has been it has managed to keep one on the edge, as it were. But that position of surprise is lost in the end.

The film's principal themes are obsession, betrayal and passion. Aggar does a very good job of playing and interweaving these themes into the story of the film. The film's story revolves around the life of Aryan (Tusshar Kapoor), who is an inmate of an asylum. He had murdered his girlfriend, played by Sophie Chaudhary, as she was sleeping around with their boss. The murder is an accident but it takes a toll on his mind and instead of being convicted, he is sent to an asylum by the court. Enter Dr Aditya Merchant, a psychiatrist, played to perfection by Shreyas Talpade. He is the biggest name doing the rounds in the city where mental health is concerned. He takes a keen interest in Aryan and vows to cure him and get him out of the asylum.

He succeeds and Aryan is a free man. Dr Merchant meanwhile is a happily married man. His wife Jahanvi (Udita Goswami) is the owner of a leading events management firm. A by-now normal Aryan finds work in her office as scheduler. Aditya and Jahanvi's marriage encounters a rough patch when the wife discovers that her husband is meeting another girl. She assumes they are having an affair. A sore and betrayed Jahanvi goes ahead and has a steamy affair with Aryan during a business trip to Bangkok. But on coming back home, matters are sorted out and Jahanvi discovers that her husband was never having an affair but was busy getting their dream house designed before her birthday. Somehow that impulsive affair with Tusshar does not seem like a very great idea and she know tries to wriggle out of it. But Aryan will have none of it. He cannot and will not stomach another rejection. Thus begins a trail of events with Tusshar bent on trying to kill Jahanvi. The twist happens and the story takes a bizarre enough turn before it hits the beaten path.

The film's pace is quite frenetic. Events move fast enough, as they rightly should. The three main characters of the film, Udita, Tushar and Shreyas, all pack in volatile performances to make this a very absorbing thriller. The surprise is provided by Tusshar, who has played such an intense role for the first time. The actor has probably never got such an opportunity to play such an array of emotions on screen. And he makes good use of the opportunity. The best thing is that he manages to keep matters in control. Udita too gets a chance to display her acting skills and not just her physical attributes. She actually does a bit of both but keeps a good balance.

But the best performance comes from Shreyas as the conniving, shrewd Dr Aditya Merchant. He shows a maturity which belies his age in the manner in which he executes the role. He is very natural actor, who has proved in his short career that he is versatile and has a depth which is yet to be tapped. The other actors lend adequate support to the cast.

Director Mahadevan does a very slick job with Aggar. Coupled with some awesome shot taking and lilting music (Mithoon), Aggar is very stylish thriller. It is a very good mix of stylish form and absorbing content.