One Friday Night
Introduction
Onto the next release of the weekend and I finished watching the new Hindi film One Friday Night which is now streaming on Jio Cinema. One of the reasons why I was looking forward to watching it was because the film is directed by Manish Gupta, the brain behind films like Rahasya, The Stoneman Murders and IPC 420. There is a certain style that he has adapted in his previous ventures, that account for some of the most unassuming and grounded thrillers. With One Friday Night, I was expecting another gritty little thriller that would keep me awake at night. So then does One Friday Night manage to impress, lets find out.
Story & Screenplay
One Friday Night follows the story of a married man having an affair with a younger woman until a life altering accident takes place that opens up a can of worms. The story here had an interesting premise but it soon ran out of steam. In fact, I was surprised that this subject was turned into a full length feature film whereas a short film would have been a better idea. Even the trademark Manish Gupta twist was as clear as the sea on a hot day, and it could be predicted from a distance. So the story on paper itself wasn’t great. The screenplay standing at just over 90 minutes does make for brisk viewing but despite that the proceedings do not completely come together to provide the much needed thrill. It was flat as barely passable.
The drama opens with the introduction of the three principal characters wherein you are introduced to the character of the wife oblivious of her husband’s affair with another woman. Elsewhere, the character of the husband has planned a secret getaway with his new lover to their villa in the hills. The one thing that I did like about the premise was its setup. The incessant rains did add a layer of mystery almost signalling to the viewers that something is about to give soon. And that is exactly what happens when a night of passion is suddenly flipped on its head following an accident.
The proceedings to follow aren’t as interesting and engrossing as the premise. The drama does enter into a predictable space wherein you can expect the expected, in the turn of events that follow. Right from the wife getting to know about her husband’s affair to her going to the location to help, neither of these events will shock you. The events start to get bland and dull when every detail is elaborated and spoon-fed to the users which made me believe that the writers are fast running out of ideas. They needed fillers too to keep the show running(without much purpose) and that made me believe that the ship is soon going to sink! There was a confusion if this needed to be a thriller or a romantic drama and it ended up being neither!
The final act is generally when an unexpected twist is presented out of the blue. But nothing of that sort happens as you can easily predict the twist despite the drama briefly following a non-linear pattern. If anything, the writers should not have opened the drama with one character in the police van. That was a complete giveaway of the proceedings to follow especially when this is just a three character film. Even the news paper cuttings at the end made me believe that this was a half-baked product which was just dumped on the OTT platform to get it out of the way. Overall, the screenplay misses the mark and how!
Dialogues, Music & Direction
The dialogues are bland and exude of no confidence. The BGM is low key and doesn’t accentuate the drama in any shape or form. The cinematography is decent but more adept to a short film format as opposed to a full length feature him. The editing is off at several places too. Director Manish Gupta misses the mark here. In fact, it was hard to believe that he was the same man behind excellent films like Rahasya and The Stoneman Murders. His direction lacked clarity and the last twist seemed so forced and predictable that it made me believe that this film should not have been made.
Performances
The performances are decent here. Milind Soman as the husband does a decently good job although his character was majorly one-dimensional. Vidhi Chitalia looks pretty and excels in her character by atleast getting the emotions on point. Raveena Tandon is alright as well, have seen better performances from her. Here, she did look slightly disengaged too.
Conclusion
One Friday Night is a predictable drama that falls flat at the end making it a disappointing affair. Available on Jio Cinema.
