The lead protagonist in 'Nakshatra' (played by Shubh) is someone who doesn't quite stand a chance to be a script writer in Bollywood as he detests borrowing from Hollywood DVDs. In the times when he is going through a writing block, he gets on with his Play Station and keeps beating the pulp out of his fictional enemies. In his further free time, he visits museums for the launch of diamonds which are 'desh ki dharohar'. It just doesn't stop at that. In 'khel khel mein', he also cracks the alpha numeric code of the diamond safe which needs to be pulled out after crossing three layers of barriers. All this while, he is oblivious to the fact that he is being used and his multi faceted personality turns out to be the very cause of him being labelled as a criminal.
An interesting subject which does move at a decent pace for most of its duration, 'Nakshatra' does have some interesting moments, both in the first as well as the second half. However, one can sense the identity of the real criminal from a long distance and by the time the face is actually revealed, you have already managed to join the dots. Thankfully, it still doesn't turn out to be an overtly bad watch as the film unfolds like a thriller with a few action sequences that do come at the right intervals to divert your attention.
Quite a few cinematic liberties have been taken though. Shubh getting saved by a doctor, him roaming around in Mumbai without getting caught despite the cops (Milind Soman) being well aware about his presence in the city, the clues that he gets after being kidnapped by a don, his miraculous escape from the den - number of factors make one believe that despite an interesting subject in hand and some good moments being thrown in, the writer didn't go the whole hog in making 'Nakshatra' fool proof.
This is because once you are through spending those two hours in the film, there are quite a few loop holes that begin to emerge. Who was the person who eventually robbed the diamond? Why wasn't he caught on camera? He knew the code but how did he go past the other security barriers? How did the criminal get hold of the code? Who is possessing the diamond now?
On the plus side, the film carries a good look right through it's narrative. Despite a new production house and a bunch of relative newcomers, there is good money spent on production values. Of course it is nowhere near being A grade but then given the film's set up, it is still decent. A few individualistic scenes are done well too. Shubh finding out the identity of the female film producer, the cycle chase sequence, the fortune cookie angle - some of such sequences do keep the audience reasonably engaged.
From acting standpoint, Shubh does well and has a good screen presence. He was decent in his first film 'Aasma' as well and now in 'Nakshatra', he has taken quite a few steps ahead. Milind Soman gets some smart dialogues for himself and does register an impact in the limited duration that he is seen on screen. Sabina Sheema is confident though she could do well with more set of expressions in her song and dance sequences. Anupam Kher is reliable as ever.
All said and done, if at all you have absolutely nothing to do and there is no worthy program running on TV as well, you could perhaps sit through 'Nakshatra'. It is not boring, it is just illogical.
Rating: **
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