Is Meghna Gulzar a great filmmaker? I’ve never been too convinced. Her films in the past decade, the busiest period of her career, have all been brisk, businesslike works, tackling important subject matter and telling knotty stories—but rarely have they been memorable pieces of cinema.Only her 2015 film Talvar showed a marvellously twisty style, where different sides of the same issue (the film was based on the 2008 Aarushi Talwar murder case) were presented with equal conviction. But that film was based on a National Award-winning screenplay by Vishal Bhardwaj, which went some distance towards providing Gulzar with a solid framework and foundation. In films like Raazi and Chhapaak, Gulzar’s earnest intentions, progressive politics and pitch-perfect casting helped her tide over narrative bumps and forgettable staging.Now she returns with Daayra, starring Kareena Kapoor Khan and Prithviraj Sukumaran, amongst others—and the film features a similar mixed bag of tones, themes and directorial choices.Based on true events (as with all of Gulzar’s post-Talvar work), this film is a crime thriller and, like Talvar, it examines two opposing points of view.‘Our Children Learn by Watching the Way Saif Treats Me’: Kareena Kapoor KhanContrasting Perspectives at PlaySukumaran is DCP Raman Kumar, who takes charge of the investigation of a rape-murder case. Within days, he and his adroit team have apprehended all four accused men. And barely days after this, all four are shot in a police encounter. The nation erupts in celebration—justice has swiftly been served.Gulzar makes the unusual decision to open her film here. Scenes of crowds celebrating fill the screen. DCP Kumar receives a hero’s welcome—both from the crowds (one of whom asks for a selfie) and from the film itself, which gives him a traditional hero’s-entry shot in slo-mo.Prithviraj Sukumaran in a still from Daayra.This moment is a useful point of departure for the film because it is where the contrasting perspectives come into play.A Special Investigation Team (SIT) is appointed to investigate what, at the end of the day, is an extrajudicial killing. DCP Ajooni Kohli (Kapoor Khan) is put in charge of this team. She is a cop who sets great store by the letter and process of the law, being the daughter of a judge (Kanwaljit Singh).From this point, Gulzar moves between multiple timelines: the day of the crime (illustrated by a heartrending turn from Kshitee Jog as the victim’s mother), the investigation of the crime, and the investigation of the encounter. Equal weightage is given to each strand: the leaders of both investigation teams, Kohli and Kumar, are at the same level of seniority (DCP), and the screenplay is at pains to paint both as justified in their own stance.Saif Ali Khan, Akshay Kumar's 'Haiwaan': Enjoyable Until It Gets RidiculousA Well-Drawn Moral ConundrumThe moral conundrum that Gulzar seeks to explore is brought out very well.Can extrajudicial killing ever be justified? Shouldn’t the accused men have been subject to a trial and conviction? The police’s history of the night of the encounter is fundamentally shifty.On the other hand, despite the evidence against the men being damning and clear, a trial would have prolonged their destinies and caused further grief to the victim’s bereaved family. Besides, there is ample evidence that the law lacks case-by-case nuance: what of under-18 rapists whom the judiciary will treat as children, yet who have committed a fully adult crime?By Daayra’s climax, this conundrum reaches a fascinating stalemate. Gulzar’s screenplay (written with Sima Agarwal and Yash Keswani) highlights the contradictions smartly and leaves us with questions, no answers. Yet, I return to my initial argument that while Gulzar is a competent screenwriter with a thoughtful approach to the themes of her material, her direction can often fall short.Subpar DirectionIn particular, Gulzar’s handling of her actors can be very hit-and-miss. Achint Kaur and Kanwaljit Singh are wasted in tiny roles. The scene with Kaur is so amateurishly staged that it comes off looking less like the undercover operation it is meant to be and more like reality TV. On the other hand, Trupti Khamkar is very watchable as a policewoman with guts and strength, one who gives chase and flattens criminals bare-handed. It is good to see Khamkar as a cop opposite Kapoor Khan again, but in a vastly different film. They were both in the caper Crew, where Khamkar was hilarious.Of the leads, Sukumaran is superb (his interval-point scene, where his outlook begins to shift, is masterful), but Kapoor Khan is rendered somewhat artificial. The character of Ajooni (with that unusual name) should have been the old-school, idealistic anchor of the film, but she is given barely any shading. Her backstory exists solely for a single point to be made in the film’s finale, which makes it flimsy.Kareena Kapoor Khan in a still from Daayra.Gulzar also makes the mystifying decision to direct Kapoor Khan’s performance to be arch instead of grounded. (Or is this a choice Kapoor Khan herself made?) Ajooni’s face is forever pinned with a knowing smile and a cocked brow. Yes, there is a certain ironic humour to the goings-on, but the actor’s perpetual movie-star smirk is puzzlingly misplaced. It doesn’t help that she is styled like a movie star too: even at the end of a long day of intense questioning, Ajooni’s hair is perfectly blow-dried, her make-up is on point, and she is always clad in chic outfits.In general, Gulzar’s handling of her scenes is often uninspired. News anchors reporting from outside the gates of the police station politely wait for each other to finish before picking up exactly where they’d left off. The camera (courtesy of DOP Saurabh Goswami) swirls around characters to create extra drama in scenes where the dialogue and acting already have power. In fact, Gulzar is never content to make a point when she can lay it on thickly, especially with the background score, which is forever loud and aggrandising. Even the climax stretches itself to emphasise the diverging points of view.Yet, a Satisfying ClimaxLuckily, though, the lead-up to this climax restored my investment in the film. Employing cross-cutting to strong effect (the editing is by Gulzar herself and Charu Shree Roy), these portions throw us deep into the conflict at the heart of Daayra and force us to face it. The reconstruction of the rape is necessarily ugly—as with Assi earlier this year, I am ambivalent about the worth of depicting rape onscreen. Still, I was impressed by how Gulzar channels these stretches into her questioning of law, justice, and judicial systems. The questioning continues.Daayra releases in theatres on 18 September.(Sahir Avik D'souza is a writer in Bombay. His work has been published by Film Companion, TimeOut, the Indian Express and EPW. He is an editorial assistant at Marg magazine.)Saif Ali Khan, Akshay Kumar's 'Haiwaan': Enjoyable Until It Gets Ridiculous