Game

A really nice 30-second advertisement that wants to become a movie and play for bigger stakes

Game is a very pretty 30-second advertising film stretched to two hours. Exotic locations in Istanbul, the Greek island of Samos, and Thailand, make it appear that the product is a credit card or luxury hotel. However, the key to figuring out what a commercial is advertising is to wait for the pack shot, the close up at the end of a sequence. In Game, the pack shot is Abhishek Bachchan, and each crucial twist of this thriller ends with his debonair airiness; immaculately turned out, cigarillo between finger tips, a faint smile on his lips. The pitch is clear—stay at the Marriott, carry Visa and use Bachchan.

Though what he is used for in this film is a mystery. Suffice to say that Neil Menon (Bachchan) is the ati sheetal billa in this film, the very cool cat who turns up and disappears in the strangest of ways, a bit like TS Eliot’s Macavity—The Mystery Cat. He and three other ‘noir’ characters—OP Ramsay (Boman Irani), Vikram Kapoor (Jimmy Shergill) and Tisha Khanna (Shahana Goswami)—are invited to a villa on the island of Samos for a tête-à-tête. Billionaire Kabir Malhotra (Anupam Kher), who owns the island, wants to have a word with them about their shady professional dealings.

Subsequent to this highly charged meeting, a dead body appears, Malhotra’s.

From here, on this Agatha Christie facsimile spins a tangled web that takes us, among other places, to Bollywood, where Vikram is a movie star, and to Thailand, where OP is an aspiring prime minister of Indian origin. Because the movie is about crime, everyone is dressed to kill, and the costumes, art direction and cinematography (Kartik Vijay) are to die for.

Game is a feast for distinguished members of the advertising club, but a nightmare for movie lovers. There is just no way to switch channels and avoid the ad.

About The Author

Ajit Duara