Pooja Bhatt's second movie Rog is a murder mystery in which the cop investigating the murder case falls in love with the woman who was killed.
Envisioning a good story is one thing, but to present it with proper screenplay and script is another. While Mahesh Bhatt ran the horses of his mind quite well while thinking out the novel story of Rog, but his horses hibernated, it appears, when it came to support the story with an equally convincing script and dialogues.
Thanks to the superlative performance by Irfaan Khan, Rog becomes watchable. Otherwise there is hardly anything (except Ilene's bosom and her bareback) to lure a viewer in this movie that starts off as a suspense thriller, but becomes a complex love story, before ending with a mere bubble burst.
Inspector Uday Rathore (Irfaan) is given the murder case of model Maya Solomon (Ilene). The prime suspects in this case are Maya's friend Harsh (Suhel Seth), a happy-go-lucky journalist, and Maya's fiancé Ali (Himanshu), a rich man who parties hard.
As Uday goes about fixing the pieces of puzzle in Maya's murder case, he becomes fascinated with the dead woman. He begins to spend most of his time in her house - looking at her photographs, reading her diaries and letters. What's more, our 'supercop with an acute investigative mind' begins to drink in her home and sleep on the cushions where she once used to sleep.
And one day, Maya appears before him in flesh and blood.
An interesting twist! But the story thereafter sags down and begins to test the patience of viewers.
Rog marks the directorial debut of Himanshu Brahmbhatt. Although he has cleverly spiced the movie with a mix of suspense and sleaze, the film remains a 'neither-here-nor-there' till the very end, which leaves little impact.
Ilene Hamman looks gorgeous and has a natural flair for carrying her sexual appeal, but she is poor at acting. Her histrionic shortcoming - often obliterated by her 'eye-catching' curvaceous body - becomes apparent in contrast to Irfaan Khan's intense and polished performance.
Had it not been for Irfaan, Rog would've ended as a sleazy and feeble suspense thriller.
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