Thrillers need to be handled carefully and when they carry a social responsibility or try to convey an underlying message, they need to be more careful about the subject selected and the clarity in presentation as well. Collar Bomb, a film against the backdrop of a threat to the children in a school is one such thriller that is now streaming on Disney+Hotstar.
http://snooper-scope.in/jimmy-sheirgills-collar-bomb-trailer-released/
Story
A prayer meeting in the school to pay homage to a girl who was killed turns into a battleground when one suicide bomber Shoab Ali (Sparsh Srivastav) threatens to blow off the children present in the meeting.
Manoj Hesi (Jimmy Sheirgill), the SHO present in the meeting with his son is the target of the bomber who follows the instructions of his handler. Manoj has to complete three tasks to set the children free and in turn, the Collar Bomb gets neutralized based on the completion of tasks in a phased manner. What are those tasks and why Manoj was targeted and by whom is the remaining story of Collar Bomb.
Performances
Jimmy Sheirgill infuses some depth into the proceedings with his superb performance skills coupled with a decent show by Asha Negi in a never-before character as ASI Sumitra.
None of the other characters are worth remembering as all go through the proceedings rather mechanically due to poor characterization and presentation.
Behind the scenes
A wrongdoing in the past proves to be the crucial link in the whole film and to establish this link the film goes through many leaps and bounds to create some sense of thrill and some suspense that didn’t work as expected. The whole story and the way it was presented on the screen were illogical without any purpose or direction. If Manoj Hesi needs to be punished, why should the school children have to be taken as hostages and killed is the million-dollar question which was perplexing.
Director Dnyanesh Zoting along with the writer Nikhil Nair fails to excite with their limping narrative and a mediocre screenplay. In addition, some of the characters were not established properly as a result the viewer gets stranded without any clue about the happenings in front of him/her. Moreover, the whole plot resembles the series Breathe : Into the Shadows starring Abhishek Bachchan in the lead role which was the other major drawback of this film.
The background score by Anshuman Mukherjee was very poor and so was the cinematography by Jitan Harmit Singh except for some beautiful landscape visuals.
Final Verdict
It’s a hotchpotch thriller that failed to explode and an avoidable film altogether as it could not meet the expectations except for Jimmy who was the only spark in the whole film. Asha Negi too tried her best to salvage as she always does, but even her character gets jinxed due to poor presentation. The only redeeming feature is the short time of the film which was just 86 minutes.
