lxxxiii - ittefaq (2017) - even a half-decent whodunnit is always welcomed by my family & this surpasses that threshold merely by casting akshaye khanna as the lead investigating detective. on that note, id even be happy to see this turn into a franchise of cases led by him, but i may be getting ahead of myself. the case at hand is of 2 murders & a game of he said, she said thereafter. the unfolding of stories through statements seem conveniently chapterised for audience consumption, but frankly at the time we dont mind it, as were indulging ourselves with the puzzle at hand, i mean that is after all the fun & games of it. without dwelling on detail, the reveal of the mystery is satisfactory but imperfect, as it's delivered heavy-handedly & throws in unnecessary drama with the aim to draw out an explanation. the problem with this is it attracts scrutiny. it triggers our memory recall & has our inner detective revisit the facts, which unfortunately reveals that for a film title that translates 'coincidence', there are one too many happening here. despite blemishes, i have to say, i enjoyed it a lot. it made me rack my brains and switch my primary suspect a couple of times. this was certainly a welcome film at a time we are starved of a good mystery. perhaps with the screen-life of a film being dwindling to an opening weekend, we can see more of them going forward? time will tell.