Rating: _*
In a city where encounter specialists are hailed as protectors of law and order and mobs lynch rapists and pickpockets, it’s hardly surprising that Deadline – Sirf 24 Ghante is yet another film whose moral is that evil must be speedily and severely dealt with, even if it involves taking the law into your own hands. Like Anubhav Sinha’s Tathastu earlier this year, Deadline treads on dodgy territory, advocating the use of violence and terror to “teach people a lesson”.

Viren Goenka (Rajit Kapoor) is a young heart surgeon who has a perfect life and a perfect little family of a wife and daughter. He’s “fourth in a list of the world’s 11 best surgeons”, his family loves him and he’s raking it in, as is evident from his sprawling mansion. On the day he goes to Delhi to collect an award, his daughter is abducted by Kabir (Zakir Hussain) and his wife (Konkona Sen Sharma) is held hostage at home by Krish (Irrfan Khan). Back in the capital, Krish’s accomplice (Sandhya Mridul) holds a gun to his head. Over the course of the next 18 hours, the good doctor makes arrangements for ransom money while his family is terrorised in a series of predictable plot diversions. It wouldn’t be giving very much away to reveal that the reason for the entire affair is that the heartless heart doctor once refused to treat Krish’s son because Krish couldn’t afford the surgeon’s fee.

Very loosely inspired by the hit television show 24, director Tanveer Khan’s sophomore feature after the 2004 disaster Madhoshi fails on several fronts apart from its dubious moral stand: the editing is sloppy, the production values are negligible and the entire cast hams it up. Leo Mirani.