Mani Shankar's Mukhbir, a royal mess

IMAGINATION LOST? The screenplay of Mukhbir is disjointed and the direction is extremely amateurish.

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Cast: Sammir Dattani, Om Puri, Sushant Singh, Sunil Shetty, Rahul Dev

Director: Mani Shankar

Sammir Dattani plays a police informer who risks his life over and over again when he infiltrates underworld gangs, or joins terrorist groups so he can help the police foil terror attacks and other crimes before they are committed. After years on the job, he's keen to straighten out his act, but that's easier said than done, he discovers.

Mukhbir isn't so much a cohesive film as it is a series of sloppy scenes slapped together without sense or logic. The screenplay is disjointed, the direction extremely amateurish for a film about slick police informants, and the characters all cardboard caricatures from your typical cops-and-gangsters flicks.

Every ten minutes or so you'll stop and pause to ask yourself why you're even bothering to watch this film which alternates between slapdash and bizarre.

I will admit there was a good idea somewhere in there, but what a royal mess director Mani Shankar makes of that idea in the end.

Talented actors like Om Puri and Sushant Singh fail to rise above the flawed script, and deadwood like Sunil Shetty and Rahul Dev get yet another opportunity to prove that brick walls have more expressions than them.

Sammir Dattani, the film's protagonist, is sincere and attacks his role with the enthusiasm of a school kid, but sadly that's exactly what he comes across as – a kid.

Dattani has neither the emotional depth nor the physical maturity to play the role that he's been saddled with.

The film ends with a scene so ridiculous, you're laughing when you should be all sombre. It's the only time you laugh in this film. One out of five for director Mani Shankar'sMukhbir, watch it at your own risk.

Rating: 1 / 5 (Poor)