A beaten track without any thrilling moments
Dark and creepy visuals with bizarre background score do not make a thriller. Most of the thrillers that we come across rely more on special effects rather than on a unique storyline which is the lifeline in any genre. The Missing Stone is yet another attempt to narrate a routine story without any novelty either in execution or narration. This MXPlayer’s short series streaming now is a strong pointer at the growing need for new stories and fresh content to entertain the audience in place of spiritless stories.
Story-line
The young couple Dhwani (Bidita Bag) and Sahir (Barun Sobti) want to celebrate the birthday of Dhwani at their farmhouse in Lonavala. Before their celebration, Payal (Rashi Mal) sister of Dhwani and her boyfriend Ryan (Saqib Ayub) spent their weekend which ends up in disaster due to a breakup between the both.
Payal who is supposed to join her sister on her birthday at their farmhouse goes missing under suspicious circumstances. How Dhwani traces her whereabouts and how she goes about her birthday celebrations is what The Missing Stone is all about.
Performances
With the kind of following Barun Sobti had, he should not attempt these type of trivial roles which do not add any value to his image. He is not in his elements at all in a character that is poorly designed and presented.
Bidita also fails to live up to the expectations in a clichéd character that is bereft of any novelty or scope for performance.
Rashi, Ayub, and the other actors Vitthal Kale as Somnath and Pallavi Patil as Hema are just fillers with nothing much to do except mechanically following the instructions coming from behind the camera.
Behind the scenes
A secluded farmhouse which is ironically named as the stone house, dark surroundings, and a boring story. Except this, there is nothing much in The Missing Stone. The directors Alok Naik and Vishal Furia also could not do much to revive the stale story of Ambar Hadap and senseless screenplay by Kalyani Pandit.
Also, the photography by Vikramkumar Amladi and music by Ranjan Patnaik and Brince Bora are forgettable while editing by Abhijit Deshpande and Satyajeet Kelkar is non-existent.
Verdict & Rating
A thriller around extramarital relationships is as old as wine but in this case, even the bottle used for marketing this wine is also an older one so it’s harder to buy this product despite the presence of some great ingredients in the form of established actors like Barun Sobti, Bidita Bag and reputed makers like Vishal and Alok.
It’s another watch it and forget it series comprising a beaten track without any thrilling moments.
