Genre: Movies > Movie Reviews

myPOPKORN's Review

Rating: 2 stars out of 5

Although Detective Naani has all the ingredients of a children's mystery book, but writer-director-producer Romila Mukherjee fails to impress with her debut.

Packed with sinister neighbors, goofy goons and bumbling cops, the film could have been crisper and more entertaining.

At a time when youngsters are bombarded with slick, superbly made films like Harry Potter and Narnia, it is difficult to guess why filmmakers are still adamant on dishing out movies which insult children's intelligence. Even though Romila does make a valiant effort to shell out a logical storyline, the screenplay and dialogues are a let down.

Ava Mukherjee as Naani hams it up. On the one hand Naani is shown to be an active senior citizen engaging in daily walks and martial arts; she is suddenly shown huffing and puffing while climbing the stairs.

While Simran Singh as Anjali Sinha isn't up to the mark, Zain Khan is impressive as the precocious kid who wants to be a CID inspector. Amrita Raichand is okay as is Ankur Nayyar as CID inspector Bhatia. Amit Verma and Sweta Gulati deliver good performances. Hemu Adhikari manages to draw a few laughs.

If only the dialogues would have supported the performances. Inspector Bhatia and Naani are often shown spewing strange dialogues. When Bhatia comes to know that Naani has been taken to a bungalow in Madh Island or Manori/Gorai, he instantly demands "details of all the bungalows in this area" - he might as well have been asking for the moon.

Naani spouts "No rickshaws, no taxis, how will we escape?" when she is being rescued! And Inspector Bhatia searches for the criminal's hideout by raiding the bungalows one after the other, instead of doing so simultaneously.

Having said that, the movie is well above the average, mind-numbing children's films made by Indian filmmakers of late. See it if you have nothing else to entertain you - which, going by the number of releases these days, is pretty much the situation right now.

By Dominic Ferrao

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Movie Story

Spunky and independent, 75 year old Naani who lives in Gulmohar Complex, is on her way back home from her daily morning walk when she spots a little girl peeping nervously from a third floor window.

The flat belongs to a newly arrived childless couple. Naani's interest in the little girl leads her to a possible murder and she soon finds herself in the middle of a mystery.

When the cops dismiss Naani's story due to lack of hard evidence, she turns detective and uses her homespun common sense and logic and carries out her investigation in classic whodunit style.

Naani's rather eccentric methods of investigation lead to many quirky and humorous incidents, no little thanks to her team of deputies which comprises of her two inquisitive little grandchildren, her divorced daughter and a couple of teenagers.

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