Review : Rajkumar Rao is the saving grace of Hit: The First Case!
In the wake of remakes comes another, #HitTheFirstCase. It’s a remake of a Telugu film by the same name and directed by Dr Sailesh Kolanu who also had directed the original one. He has changed the climax in the Hindi version which may not go down well who have seen the original. #RajkumarRao plays the lead who is a senior inspector at HIT i.e. Homicide Intervention Team. He is vulnerable presently as some incidents from the past keep bothering and he is so traumatised that he’s scared of fire. The movie presents him in an cation avatar and he does full justice to it. Frankly Rajkumar Rao is the only saving grace of the movie.
The first case starts with a girl, Preeti, goes missing from a highway in Rajasthan. A Police inspector Ibrahim (Milind Gunaji) spots her and offers help but the girl refuses his help and instead calls her father from his cellphone, as she has forgotten her cell at home. Ibrahim is suspended on the grounds that he was the last person who met her before her disappearance. Sr Inspector Vikram Jaisingh (Rajkumar Rao) steps in to find the missing girl. Actually he has been advised by his psychiatrist that he needs sabbatical from the present job and his girlfriend Neha (Sanya Malhotra) too is of the same opinion. She eggs him to share his anxiety with her which he refuses. He goes on a vacation but has to return to base as Neha too goes missing. Though this case is not assigned to him he starts his own investigation of finding both, Neha and Preeti, as he thinks both the cases are interrelated. After series of multiple suspects the film travels to the climax.
Hit: The First Case’s climax doesn’t have a crescendo due to the disjointed narrative. It’s too predictive and due to the prolonged narrative viewers lose interest in it. The narrative lacks tautness and edge of the seat suspense thus making it a routine police drama. Much more diverse and interesting content is available on OTT in murder mystery genre which is detrimental for this films’ collections. The director doesn’t seem to be in a hurry to speed up the proceeding which culminates into films run time getting advanced. He has told the story in a simplest of manner which some may like but for others it’s dawdling. Though the film has some elements of fun, entertainment and action.
Rajkumar Rao’s superlative performance saves the film. He is intense in certain scenes and vulnerable in others, hilarious at times, and too smart too. Sanya Malhotra looks cute and has very little to do in her small screen time. It’s broadly hinted in the end about the sequel in the offing as certain questions are kept unanswered.
Rajkumar Rao’s fans will definitely like Hit: The First Case! (One star entirely is for Rajkumar’s acting)
**1/2