Fox

Why is this film called Fox? It could have been named “Predictable”, or maybe “Ordinary”. Every other film in the recent past was apparently a suspense thriller; and just like their debacle, Fox suffers from a loose and oft-beaten script.

Broadly, the story is about a guy who wants to turn over a new leaf in his life. The guy in question is Arjun Kapoor (Arjun Rampal), a criminal lawyer, who can get anyone acquitted, irrespective of how heinous their crime. Predictably all his clients are actually guilty of the charges pressed against them, but an expert that he is, he gets the court to believe that they are innocent.

Rich and successful he may be, but then his dormant conscience wakes up and he quits practice to go away to Goa for a while. His colleague and girlfriend Urvashi (Sagarika Ghatke) accepts his decision of them not having any contact while he’s gone.

After a few months he meets an old man there who gives him the manuscript of a novel titled “Fix the Fox”. What a coincidence that the story is about lawyers, criminals, crimes et al. 

Arjun loves it, and when he goes to meet the man the next day he is told that he’s dead. He leaves perplexed.

He then meets the head of a Publishing House, Sophia (Udita Goswami) in a bid to get the manuscript published. As luck might have it she loves it too and goes ahead to launch Arjun as a new writer.

In no time the novel is catapulted to the status of a bestseller, India’s fastest one at that. Urvashi comes to visit him and they spend a few romantic days together. 

Just when things are looking good, a cop steps in to cause turmoil. Yashwant Deshmukh (Sunny Deol, who else!) realizes that the murders in the book have actually happened in the past. He checks, and finds that they were all unsolved cases. He puts two and two together and figures that Arjun must be the actual murderer, or else how would he know of those crimes in such great detail. 

Arjun is arrested and he has no means to prove his innocence as the writer is not only dead, but was also operating under a pseudonym. 

How does Arjun get out of the mess? Who is the real culprit? Why is Arjun being targeted? The answers are at the end of the film; but a little logic will ensure that you would have figured it all out much before that. How many such films will we have to endure until Directors realize that movie-watchers are not as dumb as they think?

Arjun is watchable, though this is definitely not one of his finer performances. Sagarika has lost the freshness that she brought with Chak De. Udita's rather short role merely existed to add a touch of glamour to the film. Her skimpy outfits were not exactly up to the mark though. Sunny Deol as the cop is mediocre.

My verdict? You won't fall asleep while watching the film, but there is little motivation in it to keep you awake. Arm yourself with nachos, popcorn and fries!