Hindustan Times
Cast: Kay Kay Menon, Sonali Kulkarni, Parvin Dabbas
Direction: Arindam Nandy
Rating: **
Yak, do, teen. How much they talk. Seems a honeymoon went awry when the husband just evaporated into thin air. A few moons later, the investigating cop (Vinay Pathak) and a motley gang offer their different takes on the honeymoon mystery – ranging from the ho-hum to the ho-ho-hum.
Now before you bring up the ghost of Akira Kurosawa’s seminal Rashomon, desist. The main snag with Via Darjeeling is that the various stories just don’t mesh together. They are left suspended in mid-air, and the ending is as abrupt as a power breakdown. Honestly, you’re left with a quizzical frown.
On the more upbeat side, Kay Kay Menon, Sonali Kulkarni and Prashant Narayan, as a New York-returned boozard filmmaker, summon up competent performances. And the effort does try to step off the beaten track. Most importantly, it’s different enough not to have a thoda or thodi in its title this week.
Times of India
HERE'S your chance to give a perfect ending to a honeymooning couple, Ankur Sharma (Kay Kay) and Rimli Sharma (Sonali Kulkarni), on their way back home via Darjeeling. All you need to do is solve the mystery of the missing husband. And no prizes, only clues, for guessing that. For starters, there is the lead given by Robin Dutt (Vinay Pathak) who plays the kewl cop on the mysterious case. Taking off from there is yet another fine performance by Ronodeep Sen (Rajat Kapoor) with his editorial hunger for ‘unpublished scandals'. Next in line is Mallika Tiwari (Sandhya Mridul) who never trusts a man who smokes an unlit cigarette. That's another story, we realise as the movie progresses, that she trusts no man. Followed by decent performances by hostess Preeti Sen (Simone Singh) and filmmaker Kaushik Chatterjee (Proshanth Narayanan) with his who-needs-a-tried-and-tested formula to make movies work. As for the prime characters, Sonali does a smart tightrope between the sometime-steady-sometime-two timing wife, while it is Kay Kay, who as he moves from one part of the movie to the next, reaches a new level of excellence. As for why Darjeeling, keep guessing? Sadly, the film barely captures any scenic beauty of the place.
So do you really get to know whatever happened to Ankur? Well choose your pick from the versions given by sub-characters -- maybe Ankur was a con man, maybe Ankur was killed, maybe he committed suicide or maybe he was planning to kill his wife... Whatever it is, we really don’t know. Not even after the movie ends! So, is this an Indian Rashomon? Did we hear Kurosawa groan? Here's an experimental film that needed some more time in the petri dish.
Indiafm
Director Arindam Nandy's choice of the subject may not hold universal appeal, but it does hold your attention at times. The songs are well woven in the narrative. Cinematography is alright, but the beauty of Darjeeling hasn't been captured to the optimum on celluloid. Dialogues [Atul Sabharwal] are in sync with the mood of the film.
The performances are neat. Kay Kay is, as always, perfect. Sonali Kulkarni is the scene stealer here. Parvin Dabas looks right for the part. Vinay Pathak is frst-rate. Simone Singh and Rajat Kapoor, both handle their parts with precision. Proshanth Narayanan is topnotch. Sandhya Mridul is fiery.
On the whole, VIA DARJEELING is more of an experiment. At the box-office, it's a dud!
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