Neeraj Pandey’s filmography boasts impressive titles like ‘A Wednesday,’ ‘Special 26’ and ‘Baby’ raising the stakes high for his latest film, ‘Sikandar Ka Muqaddar.’ The heist film starring Jimmy Shergill, Avinash Tiwary, Tamannaah Bhatia, and Rajeev Mehta, released on Netflix on November 29. While the heist drama started strong with an intriguing premise, the plot torpedoed and failed to hold the viewers’ interest, ultimately culminating in a dull watch.

The film doesn’t follow a linear narrative and keeps going back and forth in time, spanning 15 years. ‘Sikandar Ka Muqaddar’ opened in 2009 at a jewellery exhibition. Cops soon get a tip of a heist in order and act immediately, raising the alarm. The cops neutralise four armed men and amid the scuffle, diamonds worth 50 crores go missing. Enter, the top investigating officer of not just the film, but also of Bollywood, Jimmy Shergill. He puts his ‘moolvriti,’ (instinct) boasting a 100 percent success rate to work and narrows down to three suspects. They are Sikandar Sharma, (Avinash Tiwary) a techie, Kamini Singh (Tamannaah Bhatia) and Mangesh Desai (Rajeev Mehta). The latter two are employees of the boutique whose diamonds are missing. While there are three suspects, Jasvinder Singh (Jimmy Shergill) believes that Sikandar is the perpetrator, going by his unfailing instincts.

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As the plot progresses, Jaswinder resorts to every antic in the textbook to get the truth out, however to no avail. He fails to acquire any sustainable evidence or motive governing Sikandar, and the trio get bail. Within this time, Kamini and Sikandar get close and start a life of marital bliss. From here on, the plot slowly loses its grip and spirals into a melodramatic narrative, switching the genre completely. An obsessed Jaswinder goes to lengths to torture Sikandar. He pushes him to penury just to force him to use the diamonds. Leaving his ethics and marriage behind, he is hell-bent on pushing Sikandar to the brink to make him crack. The runtime becomes a menace here. With no substantial plot progression, the woes of Sikandar keep piling up, drawing out interest from the plot.

Given the lack of red herrings and powerful twists, the viewers already know who the perpetrator is. The film is no more a whodunnit. While it could have been a solid howdunit, the drudge spread across the lengthy runtime without a punchy soundtrack, doesn’t leave any scope. After a point, with the continuously oscillating time frames, one just wants the film to get to the end. The climax which comes after a prolonged wait is underwhelming and fails to boggle the minds of the viewers.

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What comes across as interesting is the exploration of the psychology of both the cat and the mouse who start becoming an indispensable part of each other’s lives and persona. While the film could have leveraged its play on the title (Sikandar’s fate) better and brought out a complex relationship between the cop and the suspect, it goes too deep into it, thereby diluting its impact. It is only at the end when Jaswinder calls Kaushalya, (Divya Dutta) to tell her he was right, the mirror is held up. The narcissistic and gone rogue cop now faces the realisation. He spent 15 years of his life just to satiate his ego even if it called for several sacrifices.

In the film, Shergill delivers an impressive and convincing performance as a cop. While he has done several roles of such nature, his emulation of the character is still as refreshing. Avinash Tiwary also shoulders the film, puts his best foot forward, and flaunts his skill for the craft. Tamannaah was through and through committed to her character however she was slightly underutilised. Had she been given a few major pivotal moments; it would have elevated the plot. Rajeev Mehta, Divya Dutta, and Zoya Afroz had limited but impactful roles.

‘Sikandar Ka Muqaddar’ started on a strong note, promising a gripping chase, however, the stretched-out melodramatic plot dulled the possibility. The climax that comes too late is predictable and underwhelming. The film tried hard to deal with the complexities of the psychology of the investigator and the accused and how their lives got intertwined, however, the impact came across as flat. The film lacks the footing to be categorised as a gripping whodunnit-howdunit. It gradually starts coming across as a daily soap with an unsatisfactory climax. All in all, ‘Sikandar Ka Muqaddar’ is a fine one-time watch. However, the filmmaker’s previous thrillers undoubtedly triumph over his latest title.