Table No 21 is the kind of thriller that makes you feel you are smelling a fish through out. The "Something ought to be wrong, I just don't know what." turns into a regular twist in the tale without throwing you off balance. The social message shoved down your throat in the end doesn't help the film's cause either.

The suspense is well-developed, with nary an inkling throughout the film. The film starts off well, starts to devolve into a C grade entertainer, and then almost redeems itself in the end. Despite its problems, this is a passable one-time watch if you enjoy movies of the suspense/thriller genre.

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Anything that seem to be too much for it own good doesn’t always have good motives behind it. Like when your neighbour is being extra nice towards you when he needs some favour to be done or when you professor has the that tacky smile on his face when handing out booklets. Something inside tells you that you don’t deserve this and the equation of karma doesn’t fit in. But nobody takes a cue and thus refuting their guts they continue to go deeper until they realise the cost.

When the Vivaan And Siya, married for 5 years decide to spend their 5th anniversary in the islands of Figi on a lucky draw prize they won, they are in for a surprise. On the last day of their stay, the jobless Vivaan and his affable wife are lured into a game called Table No. 21 hosted by Abdul Razzaq Khan in a bid to win $10million FJ which is approximately Rs 21 crores. But it is not all rosy as it looks, to get to the prize money the couples has to answer correct 8 questions put by the host and correspondingly do the given tasks after each. This all goes well with the moto or the catch line of the game(also the movie) ‘If you lie, you die’.

Touted as thriller, this movie starts rather slow, not rushing into the mystery of the plot. The first few minutes into the game for me were silly with protagonists laughing at the plausibility of earning 21 crores which may be rational in real life but seems very boring and uninteresting on screen. Also as the movie gives us rare thrilling aspects it hardly leaves us spellbound. To be more precise the movie fails in the main area i.e. the part where the audience should be enthralled. Most of the questions and tasks in the movie were bland and could have been more innovative to hold up the attention.

But to it's credit the movie does starts to kick in with all cylinders just after the start of second half. This is the part when the protagonist start getting more aware and the antagonist more villainy. Although most of the movie is shot in plush 5 star hotels, getting the feel of the place might have helped the movie. It's very difficult to avert ones eyes from the screen at this part of the movie filled with new mysteries and awaiting twists. The music is also a plus point for the movie with some good tunes to hum about. By the time climax arrives the story is splayed with open can of worms and new revelations about the past as a result of the game being played and thus the reason of the initialisation of such a deathplay comes to fore. Some lines in this movie are really good and need very loud applause for the dialogue writer.

Rajeev Khandelwal as Vivaan plays his part like he does in every other movie, with honesty and putting 100% to his portrayal. Although the start is slightly scratchy but he rarely falters as he makes his character hapless infront of audience. Tena Desae does more than giving us that wide drooling smile or the alluring bikini walk. She has great dialogue delivery and her acting is quite good (after her recent stint in The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel). Paresh Rawal shifts the movie into another higher gear in the second half. He kind of holds it in the first half but his second half is really symbolic of his acting prowess. That menacing smile and those witty dialogues gives his villainous personality a new high. He need to do more of this kind villain projects.

When Siya says Money can buy everything in this world, Mr. Khan respond immediately saying not the past, ponder over this because around this very line the whole movie revolves. It’s laudable attempt by Aditya Dutt one that just manages to push the envelop and stand out in the most template driven movies. Must watch.

Table No. 21 has very strong subtext about guilt & greed with relevant social message in the end but fails to make a punch as it gets subdued by the game gimmick. Nevertheless its worth a watch once on DVD.