Switchh review: This grisly and harrowing action thriller was unexpected from Vikrant Massey

1.5/5

Story:

The action thriller follows the story of a con artist Sam, played by Vikrant Massey and his partner in crime, Myra, played by Madhua Sneha. The two decide to rob the mansion of this rich woman Ruheena (Tanvi Vyas) by honey trapping her golddigger fiance Neil Rai (Naren Kumar). Neil falls for it and Myra who woos him to loot him later also falls in love with him.  

Review:

The film opens with a scene of an illegal car race between Sam and Neil who are then chased by police. Neil helps Sam run away and gets arrested. On investigation by the cop, he learns that Sam and Myra are actually con artists. However, he refuses to divulge any information about them and tells the police that he does not know anything about them. And the police, being nice that they are and too in Arab countries, tell him to let them know if Sam and Myra contact him or if he changes his mind and decides to tell what he knows to the police. Without any charges, despite all suspicions, the police let him go and does not even bother to keep an eye on him since he was caught in the race where they had too participated. The film then runs in the flashback for half its length, which does create some curiosity but only to disappoint later.  

The story then introduces Sam and Myra as 'perfect' con artists. Sam seems unstoppable after every robbery they do but Myra is tired of living life the way they do but yet, gives in to what Sam decides. Sam tries to keep convincing her that this would their last heist. The two are introduced with a narration of some overtly common dialogues, delivered badly. It was interesting to use voice-over, though common, to introduce the major characters in the movie but it is narrated so bad that you lose interest and do not pay heed anymore. Myra tries to seduce Neil who is living in his rich fiance's (Ruhi aka Ruheena) house as a part of the plan to get to enter Ruhi's house but she falls in love with him. Neil also falls madly in love with her and leaves his fiance to join the gang. 

The characters are so poorly written that you do not even feel like sympathising with them. Instead, you disgust them. Neil, a gullible and actually, foolish rich man, walks into the lion's den after learning the truth. When Sam tells him that they have decided to let him go and are no longer targeting him, Neil instead of feeling relieved, is surprised and asks if Sam does not think of him as a target anymore. Neil then joins the gang and decides to take part in the race, organised by Pacha, a supposedly dangerous goon, played by Hanif Hilal. A dashing personality gone to waste is what I can say. His dialogues are so bad that he looks laughable, rather than evil or dangerous. Pacha tricks Sam into taking part in the race which could win him $1 million in case he succeeds in defeating him. Allured by the greed for money and overconfidence, he decides to take part and lose to Pacha. 

Myra gets on to Neil's side and leaves everything behind to lead a normal life with him. But little did she know that she would get kidnapped when she runs to save Sam from the clutches of Pacha, along with Neil. Neil and Sam then hatch a plan to break into Ruhi's mansion and steal all her money. Neil later tells the plan to Ruhi who readily agrees despite just being dumped by him for another girl as the wealth is insured. The movie has too many twists and changes in characters that instead of getting you hooked to your screens, it bores you. 

The film is so bad that I do not even mind giving away the 'spoilers'. The climax of the movie will leave you in splits when you see Sam and Neil blow up the car with fake money and fire bullets at the Pacha gang. For a few seconds, you wonder who are they aimlessly firing at as nobody seems to be taking a fall and when they finally do, it cracks you up even more because of the dramatic scene with blood oozing out like the last splatter of water from a hosepipe. 

The film is a perfect example of what a bad movie is all about. All the elements that can make even a bad story bearable to watch like performances, execution, direction, cinematography, visual effects, and songs are horrid and grisly in this action thriller of sorts. The film fails to keep you on the edge of your seats and rather gets you so bored that despite several twists (some predictable), it has sleep-inducing effects. 

Even though such a film was not expected from an actor like Vikrant Massey, he did fairly perform as the greedy and selfish Sam. That's probably the only bearable thing about the movie apart from decent editing. Though it uses the usual technique of flashbacks to tell the whole story which creates a curiosity among the audience, it does not help save the film. The visual effects make editing too look bad and unnatural. It shows how the budget of the film was so poor that it could not even afford to use decent visual effects. 

Verdict:

The film can either put you to sleep or destroy it. It is one of the worst movies of 2021.