An official remake of the 2012 Spanish Thriller, “The Body” (El Cuerpo, written and directed by Oriol Paulo) — starring Emraan Hashmi and Rishi Kapoor — is not the finest mystery thriller we expect with a multi-layered storyline. With such an appealing narrative involving a murder mystery, the film could have been really great.
Director Jeethu Joseph is known for films like Drishyam (2013 Malayalam-language, mostly inspired by the Japanese novel “The Devotion of Suspect X” or the 2008 film Suspect X, which the director never accepted.)
Here is “The Body” – Movie Trailer
Set in Mauritius, the story introduces us to Ajay who is married to a wealthy businesswoman named Maya. As Maya passes away after a heart attack, we see Ajay mourning the passing of his wife, but in the next few minutes, things start unraveling the other side, as Ajay had an extra-marital affair with Ritu.
Things start falling in place when police investigator SP Jairaj contacts Ajay over the disappearance of the body of his wife from a forensic laboratory morgue. Even though the film tries to keep itself away from usual Hindi films, the use of songs and oversimplification of things somehow draws less mystery and more amusement.
While in flashbacks we get to know more about the nature of Ajay and Maya’s relationship, and the reason of Ajay being the prime suspect in the murder and disappearance of the body, the film lacks depth.
The story towards the end feels acceptable, and the performances of its lead cast were engaging enough but in totality, we see the film lacking punch in narration. The whole narrative was sloppy enough as the story at one point, not only tries to turn the side to supernatural but in the process makes it a murder mystery with too many questions but with less thrill.
Emraan Hashmi as Ajay is very much predictable, or his expression looks obvious because he is in familiar territory. On the other hand, we see the veteran Rishi Kapoor as a peckish cop with his personal angle to the story. He lost his wife years back in an accident which he refuses to believe as an accident. Besides, Sobhita Dhulipala as Maya delivers a convincing performance, as the character is interesting, and her expression adds to the mystery.
Overall, director Jeethu Joseph tried to make this an edgy thriller but the narration could not really make it one. If he would have followed the original narrative style without bringing in a few unnecessary elements, including the songs, the end result could have been much better.
