Mirror Game dabbles in untapped psychological thriller genre

Mumbai: First time writer- director Vijit Sharma has gone beyond mainstream films to tell an unusual story about the perceptions and realities of our lives ‘Mirror Game: Ab Khel Shuru’. That it is narrated as a whodunit only makes the film very intriguing as is evident from the great response to its trailer that was released a few days back.

Shot entirely in the US, ‘Mirror Game: Ab Khel Shuru’ is about a psychology professor in New Jersey battling complications both in his personal and professional lives. When paths cross with an ambitious young student who asks help with his research, the professor finds himself getting sucked into a whirlpool of mind games that he seems to have little control over. Throw in deceit, an affair, a crime and a police investigation and you have an edge of the seat thriller, a whodunit that keeps you hooked till the end.

The film features a cast of actors that is both experienced and unusual. Parvin Dabas plays the lead role of a professor of psychology, Omi Vaidya plays a pivotal part and the beautiful Pooja Batra portrays the role of an investigative police psychologist.

While Hollywood has had a legacy of building and narrating suspense and drama in the space of psychological films like ‘Rear Window,’ ‘Psycho,’ ‘Memento,’ ‘The Shining’ and ‘Fight Club,’ the genre is more or less unexplored in Hindi cinema.

Filmmaker Vijit Sharma explains, “I have worked on a textured, layered cinematic journey for the audience with ‘Mirror Game’. The film is very pacy with twists and turns every few minutes, with multiple plot lines and hooks, open questions, all keeping the audience on the edge of their seats and it is only just before the end credits roll that everything ties back together." 

According to the Producer, Rahula Kochar, "I loved Vijit's script and believed in it right from the first narration, so much that I thought we would be doing a disservice to the audience by not making a film like this. We were lucky that the script also resonated with Parvin, Pooja and Omi- each a talented actor that audiences remember fondly.

"While Parvin won us over with strong performances in successful films like ‘Monsoon Wedding’ and ‘Khosla Ka Ghosla,’ no one can still quite get over Pooja Batra, the gorgeous leggy lass from ‘Viraasat’ and ‘Haseena Maan Jayegi’ and Omi Vaidya has a near cult fan following thanks to 3 Idiots. That they have come together in our film to enact finely etched out characters makes it stand out."