The Film: Kasoor
The Cast: Aftab Shivdasani, Lisa Ray.
The Banner: Vishesh Films.
The Director: Vikram Bhatt
The Producer: Mukesh Bhatt
The Music Directors: Nadeem-Shravan
The Lyricist: Sameer

The Story: `Kasoor’ is a suspense thriller about crime, punishment and passion. It is inspired by a Hollywood flick `Jagged edge’ starring jeff bridges. `Kasoor’ has debutant Lisa Ray as an attorney, (Simran Bhargav), who reluctantly accepts the case of a powerful publishing tycoon, (Shekhar Saxena) Aftab Shivdasani, accused of mudering his wife and his maid servant.

Simran tells Shekhar that she'll take on the case only when she is convinced of his innocence. Simran is battling with inner demons over one of her past cases in which she got a innocent man convicted for crime he had not committed. Her guilt increases when she learns that the accused icommitted suicide in custody.

Somewhere along the line, Simran get convinced that Shekhar is innocent and even falls in love with him. Which seems like a well-orchestrated plan of Shekhar’s. Simran proves Shekhar’s innocence and wins the case. To celebrate, Simran spends the night at his house. And while there she comes across some clues that point to Shekhar’s involevement in the murders. She is torn between the need to bring the guilty to book and to be true to her lover.

So what happens next? We’d hate to ruin the suspense by letting it out. Watch the film.

The Pluses: Lisa Ray -- this is her first film and she has hoardes of male fans out there, who are dying to see her sizzle on the big screen. Lisa makes a impressive debut no doubt but…Aftab Is the one who will walk away with the accolades in this film. In a total off-shoot of his first role in `Mast’, Aftab as superb as the suave businessman, and delivers a solid performance. The plot, though stolen from a Hollywood flick, is gripping. Vikram has done a good job with the coutroom scenes. The film has a very good look technically. The visuals are interesting.

The Minuses:The film lacks the kind of pace that is expected from a thriller. The first half of the film drags, which makes one wonder how many people will stay on to watch the second half. The climax builds up to a crescendo and makes up for the lost time. Publicity: The publicity hasn’t been very good. One would’ve expected the film to be publicized better as it has no stars.

The Opening: The opening is not very flattering but that could be attributed to the recent earthquake. But there is still hope. This film will pick up by word of mouth.