The Waiting Room

Cast: Raja Choudhary, Radhika Apte

Film: A motley group of travellers waits for a train in the waiting room of a desolate railway station in the backwaters of Tamil Nadu. But the wait gets fearful as there is a rapist and serial killer lurking around.

Movie Review: It's an odd assortment of people who must bide their time -- 11 long hours -- before the sole train arrives on the rain-drenched railway platform of an isolated station in the backwaters of India. There's the young girl (Radhika Apte), enroute to Pune, who has a disc-man with dead batteries and a newspaper with horrific headlines to fill her hours. She's just read about the serial killer who rapes and hacks his victims, one of whom was found in the vicinity. There's the mysterious young man (Raja Choudhary) who almost matches the description of the killer. His odd behaviour seems to fuel the suspicions, even further. There's the squabbling couple who never let go of their belongings and there's the strange cop too, harassing the passengers with his untimely investigations. But more than all this, there's the imminent danger lurking through every dark cranny of the crummy waiting room. When will the killer strike next? That seems to be the million dollar question hanging heavily through the clouds and the cobwebs that make this the most inhospitable place on earth.

But hey, does the director manage to capitalise on the fear factor and build up a credible thriller that keeps you on tenterhooks? Partially. You do get edgy, here and there as Raja Choudhary does manage to build up the who dunn it with his inexplicable comings and goings. But soon enough, the claustrophobia of the closed interiors and the closed drama begins to set in and the film does begin to seem a bit stretched out. This Waiting Room needed a few more twists and turns to make the tension palpable.