Noor

Cast: Sonakshi Sinha

Director: Sunhil Sippy

Producer/s: Bhushan Kumar, Krishan Kumar

Plot: 

Rating: 2/5 Stars (Two stars)

Star Cast: Sonakshi Sinha, Kanan Gill, Shibani Dandekar, Purab Kohli, Ayan Banerjee, Manish Chaudhary

Director: Sunhil Sippy

What’s Good: It’s hard to tell if anything actually clicks in Noor. Probably if it was maintained to be a rom-com, it would have been better.

What’s Bad: A terribly confused plot that wants to tap into journalism in the wrongest way possible.

Loo Break: Yes! Probably more than two.

Watch or Not?: Noor is definitely passable. The film which promised to be an entertainer for the youth turns out to be a poorly written film on budding journalists.

User Rating:

Noor Roy Chaudhary (Sonakshi Sinha) is a 28 year-old junior correspondent with a news agency that is headed by editor Shekhar Das (Manish Choudhary). While Noor is an aspiring ‘Barkha'(Dutt gets chopped by Censor board), she’s unhappy covering local stories that have no substance whatsoever.

In her personal life, she has two best friends, Zara Patel (Shibani Dandekar), a DJ and Saad ( Kannan Gill). The lead character is single and in search of her dream man. In a chance meeting, she stumbles across Ayananka Bannerjee (Purab Kohli) who is an ex-war reporter. The duo start hanging out and Noor falls for the salt-n-pepper sweet talker.

Noor’s house help, Malti (Smita Tambe) unknowingly divulges some shocking details to Noor about her brother’s ill-health. Thanks to Noor’s nose for news, she finds her big story there.

Just when Noor’s journalistic career is about to flourish, heartbreak, betrayal and threat calls pull her down and she is forced to take a break from work.

Will Noor bounce back and finally find the perfect piece of news is what lies ahead!

Noor Review: Script Analysis

There are so many things wrong in the film that I wouldn’t know where to begin. For starters, the whole clumsy-scatterbrain attitude of Noor seems extremely forced a trait, just to grab the viewer’s attention and probably form as some sort of a comic relief in the film.

Coming to the professional loopholes, Noor clearly has no knowledge of news gathering processes and that makes me wonder how is she even considered to be a junior correspondent. Her rookie journalist behavior is more suitable for an intern level. Also, her antics on the personal front seem too childish for a 28 year old.

For the first thirty minutes or over, the film is just on a narration mode as Noor runs us through a day in her life. It is after this that the story actually picks up. Suddenly, the investigative mode turned on. In the manner which Noor progresses towards her story is absolutely foolish. Can you ever reveal your source? Isn’t that the holy grail of investigative journalism?

Apart from that, we are not sure what’s bothering Noor more, losing a story because of her stupidity or the heartbreak she’s nursing. In any case, she taking a break and moving to London with her friend Saad is the weakest move in this plot. If you’re a journalist, you know the importance of follow-up stories. Noor could have still had the chance to get her big break!

Probably, this film could serve as a manual for journalists on ‘what not to do’ during an investigation.

I wish the writers had concentrated more on things like investigation journalism in times of social media high or something on those lines.

I haven’t read ‘Karachi You’re Killing Me’ but Noor’s monologue on ‘Mumbai You’re Killing Me’ didn’t appeal to me at all.

References such as ‘serious journalism karna hai toh Delhi ja’ are absolutely baseless. Do other cities not have journalists or is the capital the only place plagued by issues?

Noor Review: Star Performance

Sonakshi Sinha gave a impressive solo performance in Akira. Again carrying another film on her shoulders, in the film, she does a decent job in parts. I have to say compared to the goofy shades, she performs much better when the plot gets serious and she has to introspect her life goals. Not Sonakshi’s best but a decent one.

Kannan Gill makes a debut in this film and somehow I feel he should stick to web-series and live shows, as a hero or a lead, he isn’t that impressive. Also, I want him do a pretentious review for this one!

Purab Kohli gets an extended cameo in the film. He is certainly the man-candy all the ladies will adore.

Smita Tambe gets a powerful scene where she talks to Sonakashi about being an elitist. She does a great job.

Shibani Dandekar, Manish Chaudhary form as a good supporting cast for the film.

Noor Review: Direction, Music

Sunhil Sippy’s film juggles the task of being an insight into a young journalists frothy as well as tough life. While the breezy bits happen at the start, the first half itself establishes the parallel plot, where the major story is headed. Mostly, pre-interval, the film doesn’t seem very bad but it completely loses its nerve in the second half.

For a journalist who’s so impatient for her big break, a London vacation, just for two friends to turn lovers is simply not justified. That’s the most unnecessary part of the story.

I’ll also have to admit, there’s enough promotion of Old Monk (called Old Rum in the film). We keep seeing the bottles everywhere, because that’s Noor’s drink (a poorly written Ramta Jogi joke too).

Coming to Mumbai, who also forms an equally important part of this film, the use of locations such as the dock areas and vertical slums of SRA are a fresh relief compared to the usual Marine Drive scenes. Also, looking at the locations captured from the city, one would hardly say that Mumbai doesn’t have fodder for ‘serious journalism’.

The climax is far fetched in terms of plot and hence boring to sit through towards the end because you have already given up on the lead character quite early on.

Music is decent with Gulabi Ankhein as the party number and Hai Zaroori used as the break-up song.

Noor Review: The Last Word

The film is a poor take on investigative journalism with a lead character that is highly flawed. A 2/5 for this.

Noor Trailer

Noor releases on 21st April, 2017.

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