The stage is set. The most awaited murder mystery is for you to see. Talaash has created this anticipation and the movie has something you never expect. Set in the grim underbelly of Mumbai, the movie keeps you glued on frame after frame, in sheer hope, so much that you dont want to leave your seats.

As a suspense thriller, this is by no means a fast paced movie, nor is it action packed, but it provides a perfect blend of drama, intrigue, and creates a perfect stage for Aamir to create a lasting impression - Well once again! His character, ACP Shekhawat, the workaholic cop, who cant sleep is portrayed by him effortlessly. His insecurities, pain, prejudicies angst and struggle is depicted flawlessly through mere nuances of expression.Rani and Kareena both do a good job depicting their characters. Nawazuddin Siddiqui is also articulate in this portrayal of "Taimur" as a limping odd-job man working in a brothel who rapidly becomes part of a lethal crime game and sprints into action and creates one more credible compelling razor-sharp character.

Kagti is immaculate with her attention to detail and her use of Mumbai's lonileness at night is bang on. Mohanans camera work doesnt leave us looking at a dull movie. Ram Sampath with his music and background score has created that intrigue, although a few songs could have been avoided. The casting in fact is impeachable even in the smallest of parts. The actresses playing prostitutes are so real in their shammed seductiveness we feel we are part of a guilty secret that time can never unravel. 

For all its seductive strengths, Talaash  is not without its flaws. The moral and dramatic ambivalence which is the film’s mainstay is also at times its biggest weakness. When the characters don’t seem to have urgently-needed answers they fall back on karmic ambiguities. The dialogues wallow in wicked uncertainties. The water images which are essential to the plot, float to the surface of the narration like accessories of a drowning victim swimming uneasily on the surface.

  

Talaash, though being a search for a murdered superstars killers,  is also  a search for ones unsolved ghosts, a search for peace, a search for tranquility. What the film finally asks is what makes it a powerful study of human bonding in times of strife and friction.

Go watch it for Aamir, for its newness, but if you believe you want to watch it for its rivetting suspense, you might end up leaving empty at the end.