CAST: Bobby Deol, Kajol and Manisha. DIRECTION: Rajiv Rai.

Meanwhile, a slim pair of legs sheathed in denim and sporting black leather shoes walking surreptitiously commits murder after murder. The cops turn up on the scene of crime quickly enough but they don’t spare much thought for the weapon used, there’s no analysis of the method of attack. Only a mad search for finger-prints. The much publicised convict-on-run also never faces problems of any kind while crossing the checkposts. There’s no need for any alibi either. Seldom is there any cross-questioning of suspects. And yet, the viewer is supposed to be on his seat’s edge!

The much-hyped love triangle has more songs and dances than mysteries and tensions. Rajiv Rai’s Gupt may be slightly better than his Tridev, Vishwatma and even Mohra but the Brian De Palma admirer is as removed from the suspense genre as is a batata wada from MacDonald’s hamburger.

The Gupt whodunnit revolves around Sahil (Bobby Deol) who is framed in his stepfather’s (Raj Babbar) dramatic murder. But we’re going too fast. First the minister’s stepfather is shown at an elaborate conference discussing policy matters and business proposals. The motely gang of politicians, liberated industrialists and die-hard traditionalists enter into a mini debate over ‘Computer vs labourers’ while discussing the open-door policy.

The neta shares a tense and tenuous relationship with his stepson and doesn’t even feel the need to consult Sahil on his marriage. He just announces at Sahil’s birthday party that Sheetal (Manisha Koirala), his businessman friend’s (Dalip Tahil) daughter, will soon be his stepson’s biwi. Sahil rebuts him by producing his own special invitee, Isha (Kajol) who is daddy’s personal secretary’s (Paresh Rawal) daughter.

The verbal clash reaches its climax with Sahil picking up the cake knife and preparing for an assault. His mom (Priya Tendulkar) arrests the mindless flare-up. But everyone has witnessed the scene and remember it when the minister is murdered and Sahil is caught red-handed, drunk, with a knife in his hand in his father’s chamber where he’d gone for a man-to-man chat.

Before this murder though Isha whom Sahil’s planning to marry and Sheetal who loves him and wants to be his wife fantasize about their man. Isha in the snowy slopes of Kulu Manali, Sheetal in the rippling deserts of Jaisalmer. Both of them keep caressing the telephone hand-sets they’re holding as though the cordless phones were the stud’s earlobes.

Sahil though has no time for song-n’-dance. He’s convicted of the crime and sentenced. Nothing very sensational happens in jail except a fight with two hardened criminals who have a fetish for seizing the other’s food plate.

Sahil comes across a secret study done by an old convict, Sahil breaks out of jail and makes his escape in a motor-boat made handy by Sheety to fully furnished designer ruins.

The police have been put on red alert and instructed to reel in the criminal. But there is only one officer who is capable of handling the case now: a suspended crank called Udham Singh (Om Puri). US agrees to pursue Sahil after he has been given the go-ahead to fire at the criminal anywhere.

While Sheetal and Isha fantasize about lover boy he determinedly sets out to track down the real killer, never mind if the doctor friend of his father, the man who knew too much, is also killed and the blame once again falls on the beleaguered man-on-the-run.

After several more confrontations and chases, Udham Singh finds two knives and realises that they are from a set which he discovers hidden behind an oil painting at Isha’s father’s (Paresh Rawal) place. However even after Paresh is put behind bars, there’s another attempted murder, this time on Udham Singh himself. Clearly, Isha’s father is not the murderer.

But he confesses he knows who it is and Sahil dashes off to save the last victim. Udham Singh dashes off too and shoots the killer at point-blank range. Rai’s whodunnit comes nowhere close to the attempts of filmmakers like Vijay Anand, Raj Khosla and Vinod Chopra. However, when it comes to the songs-and-dances he succeeds in making an impact. Ashok Mehta’s magical camerawork, picturesque locales all over the country and with a generous budget Rai comes up with some real winners. Yet neither Yeh dooriyan or Mere khwabon mein tu has managed to reach the cult status that songs like Oye oye and Mast mast did in the past.

Rai takes care to bring together many characters who could have murdered the minister but fails to create motives for each of them, in particular the minister who’s most afraid of Sahil, Prem Chopra.

He could have also done better with the background score. Which at times sounds like that of a horror film rather than a suspense thriller.

The performances of the two lead ladies, Kajol and Manisha, are commendable. Om Puri is also credible in a role that was meant for Naseeruddin Shah. Ashok Mehta’s camerawork is top class. Despite Rai’s secretiveness Gupt isn’t very different from other blockbuster except for the absence of big dons.

- Brahmanand Singh in Screen July 11, 1997.

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