Long
before
director
invented
Perversity
,
Billy
Wilder
made
that
tender
film
Apartment,
not
knowing
that
some
day
far
away
in
that
madness
on
the
look-out
for
method
called
Bollywood,
Jagmohan
Mundhra
would
use
that
title
and
little
else
from
Wilder's
gentle
movie.
Mundhra's
Apartment
reads
like
a
frighteningly
disembodied
episode,
neither
passionate
nor
bloody
enough
to
qualify
as
a
genuine
slasher
flick,
of
a
television
mini-series
built
around
the
theme
of
suburban
loneliness.
We've
seen
many
films
on
the
theme
of
what
Mumbai
does
to
the
outsider.
This
one,
by
its
own
subverted
logic,
shows
the
outsider,
a
mentally
disturbed
girl
from
rural
Maharashtra,
creating
havoc
in
a
neatly-arranged
spick-and-span
apartment
block
somewhere
in
downtown
Mumbai.
Neetu
Chandra
is
the
life
and
death
of
this
surprisingly-relaxed
almost
inert
suspense
thriller.
She
acts
strange
and
with
reason.
Her
character
suffers
from
acute
insecurities.
Neetu
Chandra
makes
her
home
in
chic
air-hostess
Tanushree
Dutta's
home
and
resents
the
city
girl's
debonair
boyfriend
(Rohit
Roy,
seeming
to
enjoy
his
part).
The
build-up
is
a
little
too
slow
for
a
slasher-movie
(apartment
gone
to
the
devil!).
By
the
time
the
payback
is
on,
we
are
much
too
distracted
by
the
trivial
atmospherics
and
incidental
characters
played
by
guys
and
women
who
seem
to
have
been
rejected
in
fashion
shows
in
the
first
round
itself.
These
are
people
probably
pronounce
'champagne'
with
the
gee.
The
four
principal
characters
hold
together
the
unhurried
plot.
Anupam
Kher
as
Tanushree's
poet
neighbour
is
an
engaging
diversion.
Other
distractions
like
a
tacky
item
song
and
intermittent
song
breaks
choreographed
like
a
high-school
function
are
a
huge
impediment.
It's
Neetu's
show
all
the
way.
The
girl
knows
how
to
hold
an
expression
without
looking
like
she
was
doing
it
for
effect.
Wish
there
was
more
to
hold
up
her
performance.
Most
of
the
time
she
performs
in
a
vacuum.
Lately
Jagmohan
Mundhra
made
film
like
Provoked
and
Shoot
On
Sight
which
had
a
point
to
make.
In
Apartment
he
strolls
back
into
the
province
of
the
pointless.
Story first published: Tuesday, April 27, 2010, 11:04 [IST]