TALAASH (2012) and its possible inspirations.

Aamir Khan’s latest solo venture TALAASH coming after a long gap met with a mixed response at the box office mainly due to its unexpected culmination giving it a supernatural touch. Now though the writing team of the film reportedly claims it to be inspired from a real life incident they personally had in their own life. But still, the film has many acute similarities with few other projects which cannot be ignored as mentioned below.

1. It reminded me of a Thai horror film called SHUTTER (2004) which also starts with an accident wherein the spirit of a dead girl comes in front of a car and the couple in it thinks that they have actually killed her. The spirit of the girl then starts haunting the boy as he was responsible for her death a few years back and was a part of the evil game played in that ugly past. But since after the initial accident sequence, the film moves on to a completely different track so this minor similarity can be taken as a mere co-incidence.

2. Secondly the exactly similar references present in T. Jefferson Parker’s mystery novel THE FALLEN are tough to ignore because it also revolves around an investigating officer who gets visions of various kinds while talking to people and also has a wife who has decided to leave him. The case he is investigating revolves around the mysterious death of another cop who too had a broken marriage, reason of which was the drowning death of their three years old daughter. The findings of the case later get related to a prostitution racket and its involvement with many high ranking city officials.

3. Coming to the spirit angle in TALAASH, it straight away seems to be taken from an English thriller ELEPHANT WHITE (2011), which also has the spirit of a beautiful dead girl, forced into drugs & prostitution, visible only to an assassin. Now here too she helps him kill all the people involved in the flesh trade or girls trafficking business like a real person only. And quite similar to TALAASH, this action thriller also starts with a colorful tour of the dark lanes of Bangkok where drugs, prostitution and trafficking is in full swing. Plus later when the secret is revealed, here too we have some scenes re-shown without the girl’s spirit to explain that the assassin was actually talking to nobody.

4. Lastly the plot of a couple losing their daughter after a unexpected drowning incident in a lake and then a psychic lady who can see the dead persons can also be found in another well made thriller called DON’T LOOK NOW (1973) directed by Nicolas Roeg.

Hence though Reema Kagti did come up with an interesting mystery thriller along with Mr. Perfectionist in the lead, but its plot had too many loop holes and their choice of subject surely could have been better moving ahead than such clear inspirations.

(Update in March 2014)