Lahore Confidential premiered on 4th February 2021. Directed by Kunal Kohli, the 69-minute-long film stars Richa Chadha, Arunoday Singh, Karishma Tanna, and Khalid Siddiqui alongside other cast members.
Not-So-Confidential
India has an entire library of movies around inter-country differences and conflicts between organizations like ISI or RAW, and from everything we have seen to date on the subject matter of country security and more. While there is something innately exciting about the genre, Lahore Confidential is a bland joke with acting that has no conviction and a bleak storyline.
Lahore Confidential revolves around RAW agent Ananya (Richa Chadha), who works in the Research and Analysis Wing of RAW and is described as an emotionally soft person by her fellow agent and friend Yukti (Karishma Tanna). As the story progresses, Ananya falls in love with Rauf (Arunoday Singh) but soon this agent story turns into a saga of love, deceit, and subterfuge and this is the journey we further follow watching these characters trying to solve through the labyrinth.
The problem with Lahore Confidential is that the movie is firstly factually incorrect and, other than that, the film almost has no plot to look forward to. When I came across the trailer of the film before it was postponed from its initial release in December 2020, I was impressed and really wanted the film to turn out good but the film neither has charm nor strength in it. 45 minutes into the film and it still doesn’t go anywhere and none of the actors is convincing in their role. Everybody is there just for the sake of it. For a film that starts off well, it does dip way too quickly.
Richa Chadda and her portrayal as wannabe writer-cum-agent Ananya is quite disappointing and confusing. Her expressions and tone are similar throughout the film, which even ruins her on-screen chemistry and character building. Karishma Tanna as agent Yukti is smart, yes, but again her portrayal is messed up for she is shown as a woman who can sleep with almost anyone because why not? That is what dignified, well-trained, and professional female RAW agents do. Arunoday Singh as Rauf is the only character who saves the grace of this movie but when every single detail around is misplaced, it’s hard to appreciate one good thing.
Summing up, Lahore Confidential could have been one of the best films to join the agent movie genre, it had an agent in love, a big setup, fine actors, and everything which are loved by audiences but its lack of factual accuracy, conviction, and poor portrayal of women are what makes this movie one great waste of time.
Stream It or Skip It
SKIP IT! Lahore Confidential will let you down if you watch it with an intention of watching a good inter-country dispute film. The film features not even a single memorable moment and you would rather watch Taapsee Pannu in Baby instead of this. Additionally, you can watch the first instalment of Zee5’s confidential franchise – London Confidential instead of this one.
Also, it is not that easy to steal data from RAW’s database! STOP.
Lahore Confidential is now streaming on Zee5
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