Review
Puraskar attempts an intriguing genre pivot from rescue thriller to psychological horror, and the premise itself—questioning whether a returned loved one is truly who they claim to be—carries genuine unsettling potential. However, the execution falters in the critical middle stretch where the film needed to build paranoia and dread with surgical precision. Director's handling of the tonal shift feels uneven; the early rescue sequences play like conventional action-thriller beats, and when the psychological elements kick in, there's insufficient groundwork laid for audiences to invest in Renu's growing suspicion. The performances work within their constraints—Renu's actress conveys the right blend of confusion and mounting horror, while the detectives remain functional if unremarkable—but the script doesn't give them complex enough material to elevate beyond surface-level execution. The "what happened during captivity" mystery should anchor the entire narrative tension, yet it's treated as an afterthought until the final act.
Where Puraskar struggles most is in its pacing and restraint. Psychological thrillers live or die on subtle wrongness, on details that accumulate like poison, but this film lurches between melodramatic outbursts and underwritten quiet moments. The cinematography and sound design—typically the allies of this subgenre—feel serviceable rather than purposeful. By the time the "horrifying truth" emerges, it lacks the weight it deserves because we've spent nin
Storyline
Rakesh and Sumesh, two undercover detectives with the Criminal Investigations Department, get tasked with tracking down a missing scientist named Mr. Das who's been kidnapped. They team up with Renu Das, the scientist's determined daughter, and together they pull off an incredible rescue mission—locating him and bringing him home safe. It's a triumphant moment; Renu's ecstatic to have her father back, and you'd think the case is closed!
But here's where it gets brilliantly creepy: once Mr. Das settles back into his old life, weird little things start happening that make Renu's skin crawl. He behaves differently, says strange things, moves in unsettling ways—nothing you can quite put your finger on, but everything feels *wrong*. She becomes convinced that the man who came back isn't actually her father, or that something sinister happened to him during the captivity that's fundamentally changed who he is.
The investigation takes a dark turn as Renu digs deeper into what really went down during her father's disappearance. The detectives find themselves caught between loyalty to their mission and the horrifying truth lurking beneath the surface. What emerges is a nail-biting thriller that transforms from a rescue story into a psychological nightmare—proving that sometimes bringing someone home doesn't mean bringing back the person you lost.