Acidi’fried’ : Not worthy of your time, stay away from this inflammable factory.

Acid Factory is a typical Sanjay Gupta enterprise; it has the pole dance sequence, gritty warehouse, sepia-toned close-ups and roll of the eyes sarcasm. The film while promising to be an edge of the seat thriller moves at a snails pace. None of the scenes are remotely believable and the over-slickness just gets onto your nerves after a while. A remake of a B-grade Hollywood flick Unknown which went unseen in cinemas abroad only surprises me why director Suparn Verma would choose this film as his source of inspiration.

It’s difficult to explain the plot as the film’s climax is linked to the identities of the characters. Aftab Shivdasani, Dino Morea, Fardeen Khan, Manoj Bajpayee, Danny Denzongpa and Dia Mirza are trapped in an acid factory in South Africa and when exposed to the poisonous gases lose their memory for a short period of time. They are unable to make sense of how and when they landed up in the god-forsaken factory and begin to trust each other in order to devise a plan to get out of there. In between the drama, they learn that Irrfan Khan a dreaded mafia don is on his way to murder two of the 6 trapped but due to their memory loss they are unable to know who his targets are.

In every Sanjay Gupta film, there is this one actor who always steals the show. In this case there are two, Irrfan Khan and Manoj Bajpayee. Probably the only actors who bring in the humour as well, they do full justice to their characters. While being naturally suave and slick is in Fardeen Khan’s blood, it’s just a little too much to take in the 95 minutes of running time of the film. He still needs to tone up and work on his dialogue delivery. Aftab Shivdasani surprisingly manages to pack in a mean punch, he does a fair job and shines throughout. Dino Morea and comedy just do not work and he’s lost between the other stronger actors. Danny Denzongpa is an acting institution in himself but his role is restrained. Last but not the least Dia Mirza, who does look like a million bucks in her all new sexy avatar still needs to work on her tough girl image, she manages to hold her own between the other actors but sadly only surfaces in the second half.

Gulshan Grover who plays a top cop not only makes a fool of himself but gives a real bad name to international police as well. He’s unable to track down a criminal who’s right in front of his eyes and the way Irrfan gets away from a barrage of armed cops all the time is surprisingly stupid. Shabana’s guest appearance doesn’t make that much of an impact.

Considering it’s a thriller and with the type of storyline, it’s the very slow pace of the film that leaves the audience with no excitement whatsoever. The editing is that of a 90's thriller with the annoying 3 weeks, 2 weeks and 1 week flashback sequences. The action is unbearable with cars being blown up as if you’re in a film version of the looney dashing cars game. The direction is simply restricted to as the earlier Gupta films. Music deserves no mention and the dialogues by Saurabh Shukla are that of a 5 year old slumkid’s. The film picks up in the second half and if you’re expecting a fast paced, edge of the seat thriller, Acid Factory only provides tidbits of it. Watch at your own risk.



Samiya Shakir/Hill Road Media