India, March 6 -- Good actors coming together is usually enough to spark curiosity. When those actors happen to be people like Pankaj Kapur and Dimple Kapadia, expectations rise a few notches higher. The trouble begins when their presence becomes the film's only real hook. Jab Khuli Kitaab is a reminder of this.

Directed by Saurabh Shukla (who interestingly also appears in another film competing for viewers' attention this week, Subedaar), the story here revolves around a family. Gopal (Pankaj Kapur) has spent years caring for his comatose wife Anusuya (Dimple Kapadia), until one day she suddenly wakes up. The first thing she does is confess a dark secret to her husband, one that compels him to file for divorce even as Anusuya refuses to...