At one point in Aa Dekhen Zara, someone declares “camera plus photo equals future plus daulat.” That might be true of the characters in the film, especially of Ray, a wildlife photographer who inherits a camera that can photograph the future. But for us viewers, camera plus photo equals only staggering boredom.

The film, directed and written by debutant Jehangir Surti, begins on a promising note. Ray, played by Neil Nitin Mukesh, is struggling to make ends meet when his grandfather dies, leaving him a non-descript looking camera. But Ray soon discovers that the camera has mysterious powers. It predicts the future, including Ray’s impending death.

It’s a snazzy concept and for the first twenty minutes or so, Surti builds up the suspense nicely. But then inexplicably, the script written by Shirshak Anand and Shantanu Ray, goes south with a ferocious speed.

Sophie Chaudhary shows up with very few clothes and bee-stung lips that seem to have a life of their own; Rahul Dev starts shooting at anything that moves; and the glorious Bipasha Basu, usually a fitting femme fatale, wears inexplicably unattractive clothes and a glum expression that only lets up when she does a bewildering item number in a Bangkok Bar called, believe it or not, The Cheap Charlie Club.

Aa Dekhen Zara is painfully inconsistent and doesn’t stay true to even its own warped logic. At one point, a photograph shows Ray that he will be pursued on a flight by sharp shooter Rahul Dev and yet when Ray spots him, he seems totally surprised.

Neil Mukesh has a strangely inert presence. Even though people are dropping like flies around him, he seems largely unmoved. The lack of chemistry between him and Basu doesn’t help the film either.

Surti tries to impart a sense of urgency by giving us a count down to the climax but by then you are beyond caring. What could have been a fun popcorn movie is a thriller without thrills. See it if you must.