Ritika Singh starrer road survival drama, In Car, had a pan-India release today. Let’s see how it fares.

Story: A street rowdy along with his two nephews hijacks a car driver and decides to kidnap a beautiful girl to enjoy the road journey before reaching their hometown Machilipatnam. In an intense search, they find a college girl Sakshi( Ritika Singh) at the bus stop. How will the girl face further consequences after her kidnap? What kind of struggle does she undergo in the car? How will she escape from the idiotic trio, forms the key aspect.

Performances: Except for Ritika Singh, the film has completely new faces. Acting-wise, the teenagers who played sibling roles are okay with their performance. Their psychotic acting brings depth to a few road journey scenes. Manish and Sandeep are the guys who played the characters.

The guy Sunil Soni who played the uncle role of the two youngsters and an old man who did the car driver role did their part decently.

Last but not least, the talented Ritika Singh who played the victim role did cent percent justice to her role. Especially, her performance during the helpless situation in the car under the custody of three people adds weight to the proceedings. Her acting during the climax portion registers well.

Technicalities: The cinematography work is nice as the Drown shots in an upper view and closeup shots are captured with good efficiency. The cameraman Mithun Gangopadhyay should be appreciated for it.

The background music composed by Mathias Duplessy fails to register. Editing work is adequate. The production design work is okay and so is the case with the making values.

Analysis: The basic plotline of In Car is good and it is connected with a burning issue in society. Director cum story writer Harsh Warrdhan’s concept has scope to explore in an even better way but sadly he dilutes the audience’s mood with his uneven presentation.

When decided to make a road survival drama, Harsh Warrdhan would have worked on writing a gripping screenplay with enough thrilling moments in the narrative at the scripting stage itself but looks like he didn’t work on this aspect seriously as most of the film runs on a dull note with unengaging scene order.

To summarize, the team’s intention behind making In Car is fine but the director failed miserably to execute the concept with enough gripping elements. Despite decent efforts from the lead cast, the film turns shoddy.

Verdict: A drive that lacks soul!

Rating: 1.5/5