Samrat & Co.
Samrat & Co.
| 25 April 2014 (USA)
Samrat & Co. Trailers

A young, beautiful and rich girl, Dimpy Singh, approaches Samrat Tilakdhari, a private investigator, with a strange case. Their garden got ruined for reasons that appear natural but are not known; leading horticulturists have examined the fading plants but they have not been able to identify the probable reason. Further, her father's favorite horse died; once again the reason for the pre-mature death remains a mystery. That's not the end; Dimpy's father Mahendra Pratap Singh, otherwise a very strong and balanced man, has been experiencing deteriorating health. All these aspects when combined makes the case sound weird and that grabs the attention of Samrat. Samrat along with his assistant friend, Chakradhar Pandey, visits the huge estate of Mahendra Pratap Singh. As he starts investigating, he discovers lots of mysterious facts.

Reviews
Plantiana Yawn. Poorly Filmed Snooze Fest.
Catangro After playing with our expectations, this turns out to be a very different sort of film.
Mehdi Hoffman There's a more than satisfactory amount of boom-boom in the movie's trim running time.
Cheryl A clunky actioner with a handful of cool moments.
Mustafeez Ahmad This is one of the best Indian films i have seen, Bollywood is not known for producing detective stories but they managed such an interesting movie. It was brilliantly detected, decent background music, suspense till the end, nice script, good plot. In a detective story one has to develop every single character from a driver or a neighbor to the detective itself, and the director and writer managed to do so in this. The dialogs are brilliant and can be used in everyday lives. BUT, there is one thing, after the film ends, the director, writer, actors and every body tells us about the making of the film and all. They tell us that it took them a lot of days to build up Samrat's character in the film, they considered a lot of things and thought a lot before giving a summer of the character to Rajeev khandelwal. While the truth is, all they did was ask Rajeev to closely observe Benedict Cumberbatch's character and copy it, which he did. Same attitude, same lifestyle, same coat, same way of setting the collar of the coat. They should have at least told us that they were inspired by the brilliance of Benedict Cumberbatch. Otherwise, as a whole, the film is awesome, suspense till the very end. The actors did great job.
Bcool Adil i think movie 'samrat and co.' is a typical Indian drama serial 'Adaalat' copy, starting was fine but ending and way to find murderer was not so good... i watched the same way to find the criminal many times in Adaalat's episode. Bollywood_Hungama gave only 3 out of 10 i don't know why people make it 6.6 out of 10 on IMDb. My personal advice is that if you does not want to watch this movie, watch any of Adaalat episode i am sure that you will find more info and more entertainment through that drama. And at last some minor mistakes one is weird hair-style and other is speaking in fast mode tactics of detective and still there are many other sequences in the film which force you to call it a childish attempt in a serious movie.
jmathur_swayamprabha Samrat Tilakdhari aka STD(Rajeev Khandelwal) is our Desi Sherlock Holmes who likes to try his hands upon challenging cases only in the company of his Desi Dr. Watson - Chakradhar aka CD(Gopal Dutt). He gets a challenging assignment through Shimla based Dimpy(Madalsa Sharma) who informs him that the garden of her family house has dried up without an apparent reason and her father(Girish Karnad) is quite depressed and frightened after the death of their gardener who had rendered a commination to the garden when expelled from service by her father. However the real challenge appears in this assignment only upon our hero's arrival at the venue in Shimla which is a palatial house made in the style of the British times when killings start in the extended family residing there. As expected, our hero finally solves this whodunit.The prestigious Rajshri banner of the Barjatya family has made this movie, taking a diversion from the family dramas they are famous for. However this whodunit also contains a family drama which is behind the mysterious happenings and killings. Director Kaushik Ghatak had earlier directed Ek Vivah Aisa Bhi(2008) for the Barjatyas which was nothing but another version of Rajshri's old hit Tapasya(1976). This time, he seems to have read many Sherlock Holmes stories penned by Arthur Conan Doyle and also some Agatha Christie novels before writing the script of this movie which is a mix-masala of a Sherlock Holmes venture and a Hercule Poirot venture with some James Bondish stunts appearing at places. It does not bore but a writer-director skilled in making such movies would have presented a much better movie on this story.The traditional murder mystery has been spread pretty well on the screen with ample attention to the fine details of the characters, their relationships and their activities. However in his bid to present his detective hero as the legendary Sherlock Holmes, too much detailing has been poured into his dialogs which becomes irksome after a point. But the director was not satisfied with the Sherlock Holmes persona of his hero, so he has committed the blunder of rendering a touch of James Bond also by showing him doing stunts which is superfluous.The narrative would have been taut and free-flowing without the two songs unnecessarily inserted into the movie. Though I liked the second(romantic) song, it didn't stay with me after the movie was over. And the first song which is a party song is highly irritating because of the disgusting appearance of'elephantine' Ganesh Acharya dancing with a young girl.Kaushik Ghatak as a script-writer has done well by linking everything to everything else without leaving any loose ends wanting to be tied up when the story ends but he has introduced unnecessary characters also. The character of Shanti(Pooja Gupta) who presents a parody of Basanti of Sholay is one such character only. Though I laughed at a few places but it was because of the hero and not the humorous characters and situations those the director has tried to force into the narrative.Unlike many recent Bollywood movies, one half of the movie is not superior or inferior to the other one. The suspense-filled story flows equally well in both the halves and the intermission has been brought at the correct spot.Dialog-writer could not write quality one-liners for the hero. The one-liners are aplenty for him in the script but they fail to rise above the ordinary. He terms the heroine(Madalsa Sharma) at a place -'Mistress in Distress'. God only knows what it means because I have heard and read about'Damsel in Distress' only.Rajshri banner has switched to lavishness from simplicity under the reign of Sooraj Barjatya. However I am highly surprised to see that the shooting has not been done in the real locations of Shimla(or at least some other hill station). The animation and artificiality is so vivid that it appears to be a stain in the name of the great Rajshri banner.There are two USPs of this movie. The first one is - it's a neat and clean movie. Nowadays it has become a rarity to come across neat and clean entertainers from Bollywood. Rajshri banner had earned a repute of presenting simple but very sweet movies sans any vulgarity during the sixties, the seventies and the early eighties. This movie is devoid of any vulgarity and definitely a movie which can be watched with one's family.The second one is Rajeev Khandelwal, the hero of this movie wearing a persona of Sherlock Holmes but acting at places in Hercule Poirot style also. Rajeev is a talented actor and a perfect hero material for Bollywood movies. In this movie, he has got very limited range of expressions because of the role being that of a detective, still he impresses. Given a right break, he can emerges as the latest heartthrob of young Indian females. He is one reason, you keep on watching this movie despite its apparent flaws.Other than Rajeev, Gopal Dutt as his sidekick has also done a good job. All others including the heroine - Madalsa Sharma, are strictly okay. However it's a great pleasure to see highly talented and charming actor Priyanshu Chatterjee in a movie after a long hiatus.All in all, the trouble with this old-fashioned whodunit is its mediocrity. It could have been a much superior mystery movie in the hands of an able director. All the same, it's not a bad movie. It's a decent one time watch but strictly for the mystery fans.My rating for the movie - 2.5 stars
neha_1307 One of the best detective movie made in India. There are very few detective movies that are made in India. Samrat and Co is unique in all regards. Awesome Dialogues. This is a Movie which not only provokes you to think but also makes you laugh now and then. It is a fast paced movie. I would recommend it as "Must watch". Sweet, Light, Intriguing:). Watch out for Watson aka CD he will help you to relax your facial muscles with his one liners :). Chemistry between STD and CD is superb:). The only drawback of the movie is the heroine. she looks very plastic but thankfully she does not have much to do. "Tch" signature of STD will totally make you go mad.