Hide from this one!

Hide & Seek
u/a; thriller
Dir: Shawn Arranha
Cast: Purab Kohli, Arjan Bajwa, Samir Kochhar, Ayaz Khan, Mrinalini Sharma, Amruta Patki
'1/2



What's it about: I Know What You Did Last Summer meets Saw in this whodunit that revolves around a bunch of high school friends growing up to find the demons of their past returning to haunt them. After a 12 year-gap, strange letters bring them to a shopping mall where they play a game of hide-and-seek. Eventually, their past catches up. Most of the movie happens in the mall and there's ample screaming and running around in the second half.u00a0
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What's hot: Purab Kohli has a natural charm and sincerity, which stands out as the only ray of light despite the bad script. There's tension and drama, but the moments are far and few. Using a festive season like Christmas as a backdrop for something sinister is a great idea.
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What's not: Hide & Seek takes too long to try and get a grip on its audience. Much of the first half is wasted on unnecessary subplots and characters that have nothing to do with the actual story. The pace picks up when the friends land up in the mall, but the effort is too little and too late. Also the camera work is shoddy. A thriller needs frames to be lit up sharper. There is too much talk and very little action in the second half. The constant flashbacks to the past are annoying and break the flow. Also very little is told about what exactly went wrong for the friends to land up in the murky situation. The suspense is revealed much too late to hold any interest. Arjan Bajwa's character is confusing u2014 is he a son of the soil or an outsider? His dialect keeps shifting from Marathi to Bihari. The girls don't have much to do. Most of the chase and stalking scenes are hilarious rather than scary.u00a0

What to do: Definitely hide from this thriller gone bad. Rather rent Saw or Scream for a real scare.