It’s been a while since we saw our guys attempting a thriller/whodunit, so the trailer of Ittefaq has me a little stoked, because it looks a little off-beat and seems to hit the right notes, capturing the essence of the the older Yash Chopra classic perfectly, while at the same time attempting to bringing it in line with millennial tastes. 

The film, a song-less drama delving into two different takes of what happened one rainy night stars Sidharth Malhotra (in dire need of a box office success), Sonakshi Sinha (ditto) and Akshaye Khanna repeating his wise-cracking frowning cop routine from this years Mom, looks promising and is a remake of the 1969 film of the same name.

The original, featuring the late Rajesh Khanna (who unlike Sidharth, ironically, was at the top of his game), swept numerous awards and was a box office smash, so I’ll be keen to see if they can recreate that kinda success here. To be frank though, it seems like an uphill task given that none of the names associated with the film have any box office pull and our tastes as an audience have evolved dramatically from fifty years ago. Having said that, Dharma and Red Chillies have enough face value, and if promoted rightly this might just work depending on how good the content actually is.

Putting all scepticism aside, Ittefaq does look intriguing and given Akshaye’s track record in this genre from his hey day (Humraaz, Deewangee, Race et.al), where he's played similar dry, sardonic characters with varying degrees of success, star draw aside, this may surprise even if Sidharth & Sonakshi don't quite cut it it as an on screen pair, if indeed that is the case here.

As an aside, Sonakshi who's never really got her due, looks ravishing having lost tonnes of weight and despite the lull after her initial track record at the box office, credit where it’s due, she can still act, which is more that we can say for the other bimbos and startles on the scene. And one has to give Sidharth credit for at least dabbling with different genres even if he's mostly failed and doesn't have that great a track record – Brothers, Baar Baar Dekho and more recently A Gentleman were washouts, and Kapoor & Sons was hardly his film. Maybe he'll have better luck this time round.

Ittefaq hits the marquee next month and is directed by debutant Abhay Chopra.

What are your expectations from the film?