Irada: Fails in its IRADA to Entertain

Brilliant Concept and a compelling cast are two ingredients of a good movie, but if the screenplay and execution falters both the ingredients is just a waste. Well “Irada” is such a catastrophe.

“Irada” tells the story of small town of Punjab where a PPFL, a  Pharma company owned by businessman Paddy Sharma (Sharad Kelkar) has a supremacy in the city and the state, having the CM Ramandeep Braitch (Divya Dutta) under his influence. The company does reverse boring to dispose the chemical waste, wherein the chemical waste of the Pharma Company is drilled inside the ground which in return has contaminated the water and soil. Unaware of all this ex armyman Prabjeet Singh Walia (Naseeruddin Shah) and his daughter Riya (Rumana Molla) lead a normal life until Riya is diagnosed of cancer and she dies. On the other hand a journalist who has evidence of PPFL polluting the city is killed and Maya (Sagarika Ghatge) his girlfriend goes pillar to post to unravel the mystery of the killing of his boyfriend. In the meantime there is a blast in PPFL and the reverse boring plant gets destroyed, to investigate a NIA officer Arjun Mishra (Arshad Warsi) is sent for investigation. What does Arjun find in his investigation and who is responsible for the blast is what the movie is all about.

The concept of Eco terrorism has been explored first time in Bollywood, and it has an element of novelty, but the screenplay unfortunately fails to live up to the novelty. The movie could have been a great thriller but the sequences look scattered and has no logical graph in the events depicted. How the blast was planned and executed is completely written in haste. The characters are also not fleshed out properly and they end up looking like mindless caricatures. The pace is also an issue; it has a lazy demeanour to the pace. Some shocking facts have been highlighted like the cancer train or the reverse boring etc, but a weak narration loosens its impact. The climax looks too amateurish to be true. Overall the script is only able to scratch the surface of the issue, unlike “Udta Punjab” where the issue was researched and presented well. Somehow it is the dialogues which are so well written that it somewhere redeems the bad writing. But the overall script fails miserably.

“Irada” has an impressive cast and their performances do not disappoint. Naseeruddin Shah as Pramjeet Walia does a brilliant job with all earnestness. Arshad Warsi as the NIA Officer Arjun Mishra yet again proves that he is a brilliant actor but it is teh movies that fail him. He is definitely an underutilized actor who has been ignored by Bollywood. Divya Dutta as the CM does her first negative character with brilliance and her cold demeanour gives her character the depth required. Sagarika Ghatge as Maya is good but she gets overshadowed being surrounded by such brilliant actors. Sharad Kelkar as the shrewd businessman Paddy is excellent, another actor who trying to make his mark slowly and steadily. Rajesh Sharma as Jeetu the GM of the company yet again gives a brilliant performance, but I feel somewhere Rajesh is getting type cast in the roles that he is doing, he needs to do some different roles as well. Rumona Molla as Riya has a brief role but she successfully portrays her character with near perfection and could stand up to the stature of Naseeruddin Shah with whom she had all her scenes. It is the performances which redeems the movie to an extent.

Debutant director Aparnaa Singh takes a topical subject and a brilliant cast but fails in execution which hampers the movie completely. I would say Aparnaa loses a brilliant opportunity in creating a riveting cinema, due to its faulty script.

“Irada” fails to live up to its expectation but the performances save the day to an extent; I will go with Two and a Half Stars…

Movie Rating: (2.5 / 5)