Have been an ardent reader of crime fiction stories and novels, that often get quoted as the inspirational source of many films made in this genre. However, a particular insertion in these always used to disappoint and ruin the entire build-up of a case, whenever the protagonist disclosed ‘A Mask’ being used for his crimes as a disguise, fooling the people around. The mask theory always appeared to be fake, unconvincing, and amateurish, suddenly thrown in the climax, taking the readers for granted. A kind of escape route of the authors, the novels with such insertions never used to impress or leave any impact.
The same was the experience watching Srijit’s Mukherji’s Vinci Da that entirely revolves around ‘the mask theory’ involving two exceptional characters of a make-up artiste and a criminal with an unofficially trained mind of a lawyer.
The film begins with a weird and unbelievable kind of shocking sequence focusing on a youngster deeply into studying crime and law as a maniac. Raising the expectations for something deadlier coming ahead, it never goes beyond its first sequence in terms of presentation but tries to be innovative and bold in its content matter. Sadly, the premise of committing crimes with a mask following a hard to believe casual approach, is completely unimpressive and illogical, particularly when the police officials are not given any importance before the concluding moments.
Having said that, Vinci Da remains watchable because of its intense performances by Rudranil Ghosh (as the make-up master), Ritwich Chakraborty (as the fanatic criminal), Sohini Sarkar (as the girl who stammers), and Aryann Roy in his short appearance of a youngster. The interaction between the characters with some insightful dialogues also become a reason one keeps watching it till the end despite heading towards a predictable climax. But the must-have excitement in such crime-thrillers remains missing and a film entirely based on realistic prosthetics comes up with an easily catchable and poorly done disguise by the expert himself, in its final sequence.
To be fair, Vinci Da is an average crime-thriller (with some interesting songs and lyrics) that suffers because of its basic premise fails to convince or deliver the expected thrills. The film has its moments and a shocking twist too but that doesn’t fulfil the expectations raised by its solid opening sequence.
Interestingly, one of the two sections directed by Srijit Mukherji in the Netflix series Ray also has a similar premise of a make-up expert exploiting his expertise to settle some personal scores. But there too the director tweaks a delightfully mysterious story of Satyajit Ray with all deliberately added elements of sex and crime, misrepresenting the icon’s literary works. That is why Bahrupiya in Ray at once reminds you of Vinci Da and its protagonist, killing his targets with no hesitation or regret. Not aware whether it was Srijit’s suggestion to include the particular story in the Netflix series, but Ray’s Chameleon must have been the inspirational source for his Vinci Da as it seems.
In all, if you can easily believe in crimes committed with no hassles wearing a face mask impersonating a distinct personality, then you might enjoy watching Vinci Da a lot more. However, for me, that has always been the last resort of crime-fiction writers, when they are not able to think anything else.
Rating : 2.5 / 5
(Streaming on Amazon Prime)
Bobby Sing
(bobbytalkscinema.com)
NOTE : The article was first published in THE FREE PRESS JOURNAL Newspaper (Mumbai Edition) on 29th June 2021
