Mumbai Desk: Money Heist's spin-off series Berlin came on Netflix. The name of the Indian spy thriller film Berlin released on ZEE5 is similar to it, but the story is completely different.

The film begins with a news broadcast on All India Radio in Delhi in 1993, announcing that the President of Russia is scheduled to visit India.

What is the story of the thriller film 'Berlin'?

Sign language expert Pushkin Verma (Aparshakti), who teaches in a government school for the deaf and dumb, suddenly receives a letter that his leave has been approved. Actually, he has been called by the Indian Intelligence Bureau to interrogate Ashok Kumar (Ishwak Singh), who is suspected to be from another country's intelligence agency.

He is deaf and dumb and can only understand sign language. Bureau chief Jagdish Sondhi (Rahul Bose) gives Pushkin a list of questions. Meanwhile, people from the other wing of the intelligence department are looking for two officers from their department. They suspect that they are with the bureau people. A girl (Anupriya Goenka) is suspected to be an ISI agent.

The intelligence department receives information that she is plotting to assassinate the Russian President. Ashok Kumar used to work at the Berlin Cafe in Delhi. There are government offices of the intelligence department around the Berlin Cafe, where people used to trade information at the Berlin Cafe.

Ashok has seen everything closely. Is Ashok really an ISI agent? Is he stuck between the wing and the bureau? Will Pushkin get caught in all this? The film will answer many questions till the end.

You will get a lot of entertainment on OTT platform 

It is clearly stated at the beginning of the film that this is a fictional story, so if you are confused about wing and bureau, then clear it. Just watch it as a film. Atul Sabharwal, writer of Jubilee web series and director of Class of 83 film, has written the story of the film.

He has tried to create a fresh atmosphere by setting this story in the 90s of the last century. To a large extent, he has been successful in that. The film has been released on the digital platform, so the film also gets the advantage of its limitations that one does not have to prepare and go to the cinema to watch it.

Most of the scenes in the film are set in interrogation rooms where dialogues are being conducted in sign language. It seems a bit slow in the beginning but then the interest in it increases. Taking the film from where it started and ending the story proves to be a good strategy.

However, it could have been a good spy thriller if the story was about preventing the assassination of the Russian President rather than the internal issues of the intelligence agency. Due to internal issues, the angle of ISI and other big agencies becomes redundant.

The star cast breathed life into their characters

Old-fashioned tape recorders, typewriters, Ambassador and Fiat cars, phones that dial numbers by inserting a finger, scenes of booking trunk calls to talk to another city and Shridutt Namjoshi's cinematography easily take you back to the nineties of the last century. After garnering appreciation in the Jubilee web series , Aparshakti Khurana seems to be choosing his stories carefully.

He impresses in the serious role of Pushkin. Ishwak Singh's acting deserves praise because he had to speak in sign language without dialogue. Rahul Bose looks perfect in the negative role of a strict officer. It is difficult to understand why a talented actress like Anupriya Goenka has done this film because she neither has many scenes nor any dialogues.