A remake of Luis Mandoki's 2002 film Trapped, the Irrfan Khan [Images] starrer Deadline: Sirf 24 Ghante simply fails to keep you gripped.

Director Tanveer Khan lifts a Hollywood film, but his attempts at adding a twist makes the thriller melodramatic and too unbelievable. The subject line, when put in an Indian context, doesn't do justice to the original tale.

Rajat Kapoor [Images] plays a high-profile heart surgeon, who goes to Delhi to receive an award, leaving behind wife Konkona Sensharma and daughter (child actor Princey Shukla). Enter Irrfan Khan, Sandhya Mridul and Zakir Hussain, kidnappers.

We then enter a situation of hostages and ransom -- Zakir guards the child in a cabin, Irrfan handles Konkana, and Sandhya has the doctor at gunpoint, hustling him to raise a crore to save his wife and child. The doctor manages, but only to be told that the ransom has increased. His desperation increases.

Meanwhile, there are interesting sequences between Irrfan and Konkona that make you take notice. They develop an interesting dynamic, and a couple of scenes are powerful enough to drive home the point that a simple housewife can lie and kill when her child's life is on the line.

The film works in bits and starts, but ends up ultimately unbelievable. It's a thriller that tries half-heartedly at having a conscience, and this is a big mistake. Technically, Deadline is poor, with bad sound design and poor background music. Baba Azmi's cinematography is fine, and Dilip Shukla's written strong dialogues, but Tanveer's film rubbishes their efforts.

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