Nail Polish
Ratings: 3.5/5
Duration: 120 minutes
Language: Hindi
Genre: Drama, Mystery, Thriller
Director: Bugs Bhargava Krishna
Writers: Bugs Bhargava Krishna
Producers: Jahanara Bhargava, Dhirajj Vinodd Kapoor, Seema Mohapatra, Pradeep Uppoor
Music: Sanjay Wandrekar
Cinematography: Deep Metkar
Editing: Parikshhit Jha, Tinni Mitra, Harshad Palsule
Art Direction: Arup Adhikary
Release Date: 01 January 2021 (India)
Released On: Zee5
Star Cast: Sukesh Anand, Deepak Chaddha, Mansee Deshmukh, Neha Hinge, Rajit Kapur, Manav Kaul, Samreen Kaur, Madhoo, Arjun Rampal, Rushad Rana, Vikram Sahu, Poonam Shende, Tarul Swami, Anand Tiwari
Plot: The film ‘Nail Polish’ is set in Lucknow and revolves around DCP Sunil Sachdev (Sameer Dharmadhikari), who stumbles upon evidence of migrant worker's kids being abducted, murdered with their bodies being set to fire. This leads him to an unexpected suspect, Veer Singh (Manav Kaul), a former Army officer, who has earlier worked as an undercover spy. And post-retirement, he continues to live a gentleman's life with a great reputation and works as a coach in a sports academy.
A high-profile defence lawyer Siddharth Jaisingh aka Sid (Arjun Rampal) agrees to fight this case, as he is promised a Rajya Sabha seat consequent to his winning Veer's case. And to make sure Veer is proven guilty the state hires public prosecutor Amit Kumar (Anand Tiwari).
Is it true that Veer Singh is a merciless killer, or is he simply being targeted under the assumption, which forms the rest of the story?
Review: Since legal dramas are a tough genre to pull off, it won't be wrong to say that the director and writer of the film Bugs Bhargava Krishna have done a commendable job. As without wasting any time, the director comes straight to the point by taking us swiftly through the pieces of evidence which might prove Veer guilty.
However, what follows is predictable, but the screenplay is quite intriguing to keep the viewers glued. It is the flawlessly intertwined backstories and the court proceedings in this murder trial that would leave the viewers guessing till the very end.
Performances of Manav Kaul as Veer Singh steals the show. Time and again he has proved that he can play a range of diverse roles. His character has many shades - as in one moment he is a calm and lawful citizen of the society and in the very next, he is aggressive and attacks the fellow prisoner. That is, his body language and dialogue delivery is played with the utmost ease.
Arjun Rampal has perfectly slipped into the shoes of a lawyer with high political aspirations. His commanding presence is quite invasive. Though in comparison with Arjun Rampal, Anand Tiwari’s performance misses the mark.
Even the performances by the rest of the star casts were impressive ones. They have lent good support in pushing the narrative forward.
A tight edit would have worked like wonders. As there are too many subplots here. Not sure why did every protagonist in the screenplay have to have a messed-up home life?
Nevertheless, the background score by Sanjay Wandrekar helped in enhancing the drama and was impactful.
Overall, a better handling and a tighter narrative could have gone a long way into making Nail Polish a nail-biting courtroom drama!
