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Directed by Akhilesh Jaiswal and starring a young brigade Khushali Kumar, Tusharr Khanna, Eshan Bhat along with Milind Soman is a tale of grief & healing through the depths of the underwater world.
A movie gets fulfilled when there is a compelling story and power packed performances to back it up with, if any one of them fell short it can be a disaster. Something like that happened with Starfish which has a shallow storyline which would not appeals the audiences.
Tara (Khushali Kumar) a young diver in Malta is struggling with her traumatic past and present incidents. She is a free soul who is stuck in ‘situationships’ with life and doesn’t know how to deal with them. Aman Sharma (Tusharr Khanna), a Navy Officer who is madly & truly in love with Tara and wants to hold her hand in any case. Neil (Eshan Bhat) is playing a singer who seems like a red flag at first but turns out as a green one. While Milind Soman plays a music Guru, his screen presence is the real treat to watch in the film, he doesn’t let you feel that he is the only oldest character in the story.
Talking about the story it doesn’t fall in place correctly to express the message that the writer and director wants to put out. The dialogue writing has its own flaws but the story too has so many twists & turns; half of them are very predictable and gammy. At one point you may get tired of the twists coming till it ends.
Khushali Kumar could have done far better than she did for Tara’s role. Her expressions, dialogue deliveries & overall presence doesn’t seem natural at all. Although Tara’s role of diver suits her but when the whole film is revolving around you, then you need to be that strong & able to carry it on your own. Other actors look fine but their characters doesn’t have any growth as director and writers are busy grooming Tara as a lead.
Overall, the plot of Starfish has a potential only if it puts well, though this one can be a good one time watch for a different story which has no villains in it, for its exotic locations & on point beach-vibes setting.