After any overdose, you tend to be wobbly. That is the case even if you watch three or four movies a day. The effect would be the same if all these movies are synced into a single canvas too.

Arunkumar Aravind's Underworld falls in that genre of genres.

It is for the audience to figure out if it is envisaged as a political crime thriller, pot boiler, a mix of drama and action or whatever it deems fit.

Most likely Underworld' starring Asif Ali, Farhaan Faasil, Mukesh and Jean Paul Lal, falls into the category of no man's land in the filmy terrain.

We get glimpses of the craft of the director in occasional shots.

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The plot drifts apart wherever it can and the script is not convincing either to hold the audience.

Among actors, Mukesh may just pass muster mainly due to the depth of his character, a Machiavellian politician.

So is this a political movie, as it at times tempts us to believe, through sarcastic dialogues.

It may not be the case. If so, the action scenes should carry the movie. Did it?

Maybe Underworld, a 2 hour, 40-minute movie, would leave us conceptually confused about the genre of the movie.

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The sole purpose of the protagonists or antagonists seems to be the pursuit of money.

But in between, the filmaker injects in them a dose of human touch. That struggle falls flat as trials and tribulations of the men in pursuit of a Rs 500 crore booty are again pursued to take forward the plot.

Then there is the usual perceived criminal bend of the cops, depicted in umpteen movies, coming into play again.

So no need for guessing there is a cliched nexus among cops, criminals and politicians. So what is new, you may ask.

As a rule, there need not be anything new, but it could have been crafted in a better way.

So the realisation dawns that not many filmmakers can dabble with varied genres, though an attempt on these lines is not a bad idea at all.

The problem with Underworld is that it is a relentless pursuit of a crime thriller that strays into the grey areas of mass and class. It also tries in vain to trespass into tantalising terrain of a dark canvas.

In the process, Underworld will shake you up at times but lets you slip also.

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