COFFEE WITH D - Another inspired but interesting idea gets lost in a confused and faulty execution. (Review by Bobby Sing)

It’s more exciting to watch a film you know nothing about in comparison to a much talked about and publicized mega venture. But it’s also really disappointing when it turns out to be just another inspired film based on an interesting idea that eventually becomes a victim of a largely confused, tacky and faulty execution.

Revealing the inspirations first, COFFEE WITH D clearly borrows its basic idea from English films like THE INTERVIEW (2014), FROST NIXON (2008) and to some extent our own TERE BIN LADEN series too (as a reference). For its lead character’s name the writers model the infamous Arnab Goswami of Times Now and then base their complete film on the mysterious persona of one of the most wanted criminals of the globe DAWOOD popularly also known as D.

No doubt, a controversial Indian journalist going for an almost impossible interview of the DON residing in Pakistan was a great potential idea having a lot of meat in it. But the way director Vishal Mishra presents it on the screen along with his (surprisingly lazy) actors and poor writing, the idea never excites right from the initial moments itself making a pretty bad start.

The first half gets lost in many unengaging scenes (allowing you to take some short naps too) and the second half remains completely focused on the two men sitting across a table unable to keep you involved. Moreover it’s the technical snags in the film, of many muted words (even sentences), an uneven background score and a pathetic dubbing that actually annoys you much more than the performing (or rather sleepwalking) actors.

Honestly it was really sad to see even an experienced and extremely talented Sunil Grover (of Guthi fame) struggling to generate some humour through his lifeless act and Zakir Hussain trying hard to rise above the mediocre script. On the other hand Rajesh Sharma does fine in his few scenes and Anjana Sukhani comes out as a complete natural along with Pankaj Tripathi, who certainly scores the most among the entire cast.

Pointing towards the downers of the TV industry always looking for content to raise its TRP ratings, a few early sequences rightly showcase the way beautiful faces are given more attention and preferences ignoring their lack of knowledge or talent and how ideas are often copied by the professional rivals in this cunning trade. But I really wish it was all presented differently with a much finer execution reaching out to the viewers too.

In short, a project is bound to sink when even the makers are completely confused about what kind of film they wish to present and to what kind of target audience? In other words COFFEE WITH D begins as a comedy, then tries to be a thriller and lastly turns into an unimpressive social satire ruining the entire potential plot wasting the actors too.

However, if the idea still excites you then do try to watch the two English films mentioned above (particularly FROST NIXON as a must) and have a great time.

Rating : 1 / 5 (including 0.5 for the talented cast trying hard to rise above the poor script)

For friends interested in reading more about FROST NIXON (2008), the following is the link of its write-up at BTC:
http://www.bobbytalkscinema.com/recentpost.php?postid=postid121212122313