Talaash is a supernatural thriller featuring Bollywood A-list stars like Aamir Khan, Rani Mukerji, and Kareena Kapoor Khan.
Whenever movie characters turn out to be ghosts, all we can think of is The Sixth Sense and “I see dead people.” Any film that tries a similar tactic seems like a copy, even if it has an entirely different plot. Talaash (Search) is a supernatural thriller featuring Bollywood A-list stars like Aamir Khan, Rani Mukerji, and Kareena Kapoor Khan. It begins with a well-known actor, named Armaan Kapoor, as he drives off the road into a body of water and dies. Inspector Surjan (Aamir Khan) begins to investigate, and he quickly finds out that Kapoor’s son has also recently drowned. Kapoor’s wife, Roshni, is grieving both deaths, and she even seeks out the help of a psychic to stay in touch with her husband in the afterlife.
The investigation leads to a lot of strange discoveries. At the time of the accident, Armaan was carrying a huge sum of money to pay off a pimp named Sashi, for a cover-up that occurred many years before. Surjan employs a prostitute, named Rosie (Kareena), as an informer, and she reveals the connection between Sashi and Armaan. A DVD reveals that the famous actor had a thing for prostitutes, and Rosie admits that she once got picked up by him. (Spoilers coming up!) After a series of events, Surjan connects the dots and realizes that Rosie actually died in the aforementioned cover-up, and that all along he had been hanging out with a ghost prostitute. She eventually saves his life when he almost drowns while reenacting Armaan’s death, and Surjan finds her body and gives her a funeral.
Rosie’s cryptic way of speaking could lead one to figure out her ghostly nature long before the big reveal (especially if one is familiar with supernatural movies). She says lines like, “Nark mein hoon, par sward ka raasta jaanti hoon” (I am in hell, but I know the way to heaven). The word “nark” means “hell,” and “sward” means “heaven.” The phrase “Main jaanti hoon” translates as “I know,” but in Hindi, the word “I” is often not necessary, which is why Rosie only says “jaani hoon.” The movie can best be summed up by the psychic’s line, “Is duniya mein bahut si cheezein hai joh samjhayi nahi ja sakti” (In this world, there are many things that can’t be explained). The root word for “explained” – or “samjhayi,” in the psychic’s like – is “samajh,” which means “understanding.” At any rate, there are a lot of things in this world that cannot be understood or explained, among them Bollywood’s love for being “inspired” by international films.
