Review : Zeher

This film is one the tried-and-tested formula films of the Bhatt camp. The formula: a storyline lifted straight from Hollywood, B grade stars, sufficient sleaze factor, decent enough songs, and voila! You have a film which will ensure returns considering its made on a shoestring budget. And “Zeher” is no different. It is, of course another matter that direction is inept, the Indianised script riddled with holes, and acting way below par.

Siddharth (Emran Hashmi), the head honcho of a Goa police station, is active in pursuing the bad guys in the drug trade, and has just nabbed drug gang members and a large haul of a narcotic and lots of illegal money. On the home front, he is estranged from his wife Sonia (Shamita Shetty), who’s also a police officer. Of course, despite their differences, and his apparent inability to stomach a successful wife with her own career, Siddharth still loves her.

Siddharth meets Anna (Udita Goswami), abused wife of a local goon Sean (Sameer Kochhar), and they have an affair (OF COURSE, Siddharth still loves Sonia oh-so-much). Anyway Anna gets pregnant with Siddharth’s baby, and at the same time finds out that her dormant cancer has returned to malignant status. The only way to save her and the baby, is a costly medical treatment. Since she doesn’t have the money, her husband is an uncaring cad, and she loves Siddharth and is basically a good girl imbued with qualities of self-sacrifice, she decides to leave Goa to relieve Siddharth of her problems. Siddharth is torn with guilt, you know, because he’s basically a nice chap, although he’s never heard of marital fidelity. And what’s an honest cop to do when caught between a rock and a hard place ? Of course, hand over illegal drug money housed in police station locker to current girlfriend !

And that’s what our charming Sidhharth does. Anna refuses, but then accepts. That very night, Anna’s house burns down, with apparently Anna and Sean still in it. Investigations are on – was it a murder ? Clues point to Sidhharth, and he has to unravel this mess, before his wife, as Chief Investigating Officer in the case, does.

The film on the whole has a very cut-and-paste feel to it. Characters seem shallow. Direction is OK. Acting is poor, especially Ms. Goswami’s. Hashmi is a close second, with the best actor in the film actually being Ninad Kamath who plays Siddharath’s friend and deputy James.

Avoidable.