Samay: When Time Strikes (2003)

The year was 2003; I went to watch this suspense thriller movie with one of my very dear friend, and I remember exactly what I told him when we left the theatre after the movie finished, I told him that this movie is instantaneously going to be a big flop, not because it is a bad movie, but because it is too good, as people are still interested in movies with romance and predictable culminations.  

Whether the movie performed well or not, I don’t know as I am not aware about the box office collections of the movie, but since the movie is seldom discussed within movie enthusiast I believe the movie has not gotten the credit it deserved.  So what’s so great about this movie?

To start with the movie has an airtight screenplay, every scene has some significance to the story; however one song could have been spared with. The movie is about one cop Malvika Chauhan (Sushmita Sen) who is trying to catch serial killer responsible for multiple murders, apparently there is no visible connection between those murders and other people in force are not even considering them to be connected, however Sushmita is not convinced and keeps pursuing the case. The cat and mouse chase that follows is superb.

In India not many movies have been made on serial killer genre, the other movie that comes into mind is ‘The Stone man Murders’ which in my opinion was a very week movie, but Hollywood has amply explored this genre, in fact this movie is a ‘remake’ of a Hollywood movie; Seven (1995) starring Bred Pitt, Morgan Freeman and Kevin Spacey. Ironically I believe the Hindi remake is much better than the original, as the director has changed the story substantially and given it a much better prospective.

Now for any suspense movie not only Who (Who did the murder) and How (How did he/she did that) are important, but one more important question is Why (Why the crime was committed). Indian movie have always been very lame in this regard, generally money, or love are the predominant reasons behind crime in Bollywood movie, but this is where Samay scores heavily, in the climax the viewer not only gets to know the identity of the killer, but an extraordinary explanation behind the motive of the murders, and mark my words the explanation is extra ordinary and simply amazing, and the climax is a knockout.

Having said that, there may be people who may not like the ‘Why’ part, well it’s their prerogative and I respect that, but for me, this movies climax was as good as it can get, and I will rate this movie in line with other classics like ‘Jewel Thief’ and ‘A Wednesday’.  

An absolute must for any suspense movie fan.

Rating ****.