House Arrest Movie Review: Nothing arresting about this

Story: A young professional Karan (Ali Fazal) locks himself up in his swanky Delhi apartment for self-isolation. But will he find peace of mind? Review: The idea of ‘House Arrest’ couldn’t be more relevant at this time when the world is practicing social distancing and self-quarantine. But on screen, this exciting idea is nothing more than a series of pointless scenes stuck together. The film opens with Karan going about his daily chores giving us a peek into his life of urban isolation. But this quickly becomes frustrating as the film fails to move forward or effectively answer why Karan is in this self-isolation mode. There’s a ray of hope when his friend JD (Jim Sarbh) sends a news reporter Saira (Shriya Pilgaonkar) to do a story on Karan’s self-imposed quarantine. She is researching on the Japanese concept of Hikikomori where people practice acute social withdrawal. But neither Saira nor the makers show any real interest in telling us what in God’s name is going on in Karan’s head (or in this film). Ali Fazal tries to make some sense of his character with a decent performance. The only ‘nuance’ about his character is the irritating ringtone of his cell phone. We’re supposed to believe that Shriya Pilgaonkar is a reporter, but neither does she take notes nor click any pictures for the story that she is supposed to write. She simply goes in and out of Karan’s house and her character follows the most clichéd arc ever. Jim Sarabh as Karan’s bum-chum is annoying with his exaggerated act of playing a cheating and manipulative womaniser. But even more annoying is Karan’s neighbour Pinky (Barka Singh). She breaks into Karan’s house at will with her towering bodyguard and refers to every man in her life as baby. She is supposed to be comical, but all she does is leave you even more frustrated with her loud performance. The entire film is shot inside a spacious apartment, which is thankfully done up quite tastefully to provide some respite. It’s shocking that it took two directors (Samit Basu, Shashanka Ghosh) to make this random hotchpotch that calls itself a comedy.