In Tamanna, the neo-noir adaptation of Anthony Shaffer’s play Sleuth, a kooky old film director invites his wife’s lover over to his grand old house in the country for an intellectual game of cat and mouse – or so the characters in the movie played by actors Salman Shahid and Omair Rana believe.
Most of Tamanna functions as a one-act play, limited to a single location and one solitary night. About one-third of the narrative is the build-up between the two actors, as Feryal Gauhar (in cameo-esque cuts), watches over them via the house’s security feed.
Tamanna, as it is, does not flow like a feature film. It could have been a better stage play, or a telefilm, since it is written for the screen – just not the big-screen.