Acid Factory

Rating : 6/10
Release Date : 9th Oct, 2009
Time : ~145 minutes
Director & Co-writer: Suparn Verma; Writer :Sanjay Gupta; Music : Bappi Lahiri, Shamir Tandon, Gourov Dasgupta, Manasi Scott
Starring : Fardeen Khan, Dino Morea, Dia Mirza, Manoj Bajpai, Danny Dengzopa, Aftab Shivdasani, Irrfan Khan, Gulshan Grover
What I like about this film is that it stayed true to its script (and its inspiration, the film Unknown)…apart from adding a couple of redundant item numbers, it didn’t stray from its main storyline and add sub-plots, emotion, drama just to spice things up. And, probably for the umpteenth time, here is a film with an interesting premise, which doesn’t live up to its full promise, in this case due to a weak ending and possibly flawed editing.


This is a story about some characters, all toughies, who wake up with temporary memory loss, in a sealed acid factory and have no idea who they are or why they are there. Two are bound, the others are free, but they cannot go out of the premises or make any calls. Slowly, they figure out what their next steps should be, both collectively and individually. And they have to figure out who to trust and who to watch out for. They have different characteristics as well, each one defined reasonably clearly. One is more a ‘detective’, one a ‘scientist’, another is dressed as a Casanova, one is a tapori and one just a regular tough guy.

The flashback technique was inappropriate for me, in this film, as it gave too much away. And the ending was tame, you wait for a big twist but its just a tame one (faulty editing being the culprit for me) and it doesn’t make the two hours or so worth it.


This is yet another film which unnecessarily chooses a fancy locale (South Africa) with no reason at all (apart from a willing producer) why this film (75% of which is in a warehouse) couldn’t have been shot completely locally. The cast, comprising exclusively of the ‘almost famous’ and ‘has beens’ delivers quite well, no complaints here. And the opening titles sequence is interesting, using a ‘green negative’ kind of effect which is interesting.


What this film needed though was a spectacular ending, to make the whole experience worthwhile. Currently, you leave with the impression of a couple of hours spent reasonably, but not entirely worth it. So near, yet so far...