The trailer of Halahal promises a fairly gripping thriller-drama about a father, played by the ever-dependable Sachin Khedekar who is convinced that his daughter’s suicide is murder. Khedekar needs no prompting to look like a distraught after wrestling red-tapism. He does well in the one-minute trailer, exuding parental anxiety with credible convulsions. While the work shirkers and law enforcing rogues look guilty as sin.
It’s Barun Sobti who had me staring at him with disbelieving eyes. What WAS he thinking? Sobti known for playing who characters who express a lot less than they think, is all over the place in Halahal as an uncouth corrupt cop who, obviously, goes through a moral transformation while helping the distraught father get justice.
Does the transformative character in khaki remind you of Ranveer Singh in Simmba? If it does, then you are on the right track. The character is very much akin to Singh. But can Sobti with his subdued persona and allegiance to sobriety pull off this image-defying character? It’s like Waheeda Rehman playing Basanti.
In the trailer Sobti seems hopefully miscast. We can only hope for the best , cross our fingers and wait for the film to stream on 21 September.At the moment Sobti looks like the film’s waterloo.