Collar Bomb Movie Review: Tick-Tock, This Jimmy Sheirgill-Asha Negi Starrer Doesn't Blast Loud!

Story

Set in the picturesque hamlet of Sanawar, Collar Bomb begins with a typical father-son conversation between a celebrated cop Manoj Hesi (Jimmy Sheirgill) and Akshay (Naman Jain). Their smooth car ride is interrupted by an ominous event which reminds Manoj a few flashes of his tumultuous past. Later, the duo land up at the town's top school St George for Akshay's admission.

The boy is left upset when he discovers that his admission is a 'thank you' from this school for his father solving a complicated death case linked to one of their missing students. Before Manoj and his son can have a proper conversation over this, a suicide bomber with a collar bomb crashes the place and compels Manoj to conduct a series of heinous crimes, in order to save the lives of the hostages trapped inside the school.

Eventually, Manoj realises that this suicide bomber has a connection to one of his 'purana paap'. Will the super cop succeed in his race against time when several innocent lives are at stake or will his karma catch up to him? The rest of the film holds an answer to that.

Direction

Dnyanesh Zoting has an interesting premise in his hand. Barring a few glitches, he even manages to keep you glued to the screen with his and co-writer Nikhil Nair's fast-paced screenplay which has enough of 'bloody' twists. However, the film starts crumbling when your eyes fall on some glaring loopholes and you smell the climax from afar. From thereon, Collar Bomb loses its grip over you and when the timer finally reaches its last minute, the boom barely makes a loud noise. Also, the red herrings during the countdown lack a spark.

In a nutshell, a little more fine-tuning of the screenplay and a backstory to the suicide bomber would have lent some interesting layers to this cop thriller.

Performances

Jimmy Sheirgill as the glorified cop is in top form. Even when the plot wobbles at places devoid of logic, the man takes the centre stage and keeps you invested in the happenings on screen. However, one wished that the actor had got some well-written dialogues to add more sheen to his character with multiple shades. Asha Negi pulls off a surprise as the 'dabangg' young cop with a no-nonsense attitude. Rajashri Deshpande, Naman Jain and Sparsh Shrivastava deliver what the plot offers them in the film.

Technical Aspects

Jitan Harmeet Singh makes efficient use of his camera to capture the beauty of Himachal Pradesh on screen. The scenic locales of the hill station is pleasing to the eyes. At a runtime of 1 hour and 49 minutes, editors Anurodh and Praful Sawant keep the film taut.

Music

Thankfully, director Dnyanesh Zoting doesn't fall into the trap of adding unnecessary songs to his film in order to grab more eyeballs. As a result of this, he sticks to the tone of the movie from the first frame till the last. The background score of the film has nothing new to offer.

Verdict

In Collar Bomb, one of the characters quip, "Zindagi sirf ek chain hai, ek kadi..humare liye hua faislon se bani ek kadi. Har zindagi dusrein kadiyon ki kadi se ulji hoti hai. Apne faisle khud lene ka hak hum sabke paas hai, lekin usse kadi se jude hue akhri insaan ko jhelna padta hai." Similarly, director Dnyanesh Zoting starts a thrilling chain of events in his film. Unfortunately, when he misfires in the latter half of this thriller, it results into a blast that falls short of being a powerful one!