There was a time when Bollywood had expertise in crafting sensational murder mysteries. Be it Abbas-Mustan’s deliciously twisted thriller or films like Secret And CoincidenceThe audience was invested in not only finding out who committed the crime, but also how it all unfolded. Those films kept the audience guessing till the end. But cinema has evolved, and audiences today have grown up on far more layered legal dramas and sophisticated crime thrillers, leading to Sidharth P Malhotra’s ace Feel like a movie that’s at least two decades late to the party.

The film starts at an interesting point. Soma (Akanksha Ranjan Kapoor) is seen enjoying a night out with Shauryaman (Akshaye Khanna), but moments later she is thrown out of a speeding luxury car. Left critically injured on the side of the road, the incident turned into a sensational case involving privilege, politics and power.

Enter Arjun (Sunny Deol), a renowned defense lawyer, who enters the courtroom with the same moral conviction he once had Damini Character distinguished. In his opening argument, he talks about how power and class often influence justice. He also addressed the common perception about defense lawyers, saying that they are often dismissed as people who only chase money, while they can also fight for the truth. In particular, one line is clear: law and justice are not always the same.

Parallelly, the film introduces Arjun’s personal life. Their daughter, a promising swimmer, suddenly develops a nose bleed during an important selection test. If you’ve watched enough Bollywood movies, you can almost guess where this subplot is going when the doctor tells her she has a terminal disease that will require stem cells from one of her parents to be cured.

It is fun to see how Akshaye Khanna at this age gets the role of a spoiled son of a powerful politician. He is a privileged man-child who spends his nights partying with women while his wife quietly waits for him at home. When her case comes to Arjun’s desk, the lawyer initially refuses due to their shared past. But the circumstances surrounding his daughter’s treatment force him to reconsider, setting the stage for a court battle where personal history becomes as important as the evidence.

One of the most interesting choices in the film is to transform Sunny Deol’s character into a defense lawyer representing an alleged rapist. Still, a lot to like DaminiArjun told his team to stop character assassination of the victim. When one of the witnesses attempts to do exactly this, Deol slips into his signature angry-young-man mode, and delivers an absolute blast in the courtroom that instantly transports the audience back to the 90s.

Meanwhile, Akshaye Khanna looks like Rehman Dacoit has just stepped out stalwart And in this film. The dark wardrobe, the measured pauses, the suspicious glances, the slightly stooped gait and the persistent arrogance – everything is the same. In one scene, a background dancer is also doing his same viral dance move, making it look like the makers just wanted to play with his character’s popularity.

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Tilottama Shome’s Madhu Bose comes in and briefly injects new energy into the story. While presenting her hand wrapped in a sling in the court, she also makes fun of her hand being ‘two and a half kilos’. There is an emotional scene where Soma’s mother (Jyoti Mukherjee) cries in front of Arjun and says that there can be no greater pain than losing one’s child. It quietly reflects the emotional burden that Arjun carries himself throughout the trial.

But, unfortunately, women rarely get success. While Tilottama wields influence at court, she remains a stereotypical Bengali wife at home – wearing a saree, playing shakha-pola and cooking breakfast for her unemployed husband. Sanjeeda Shaikh also hardly gets much to do, while Dia Mirza is limited to playing the role of a caring mother and building the relationship between Akshay and Sunny’s characters.

The film continues to deliver twists and turns in its final hour, repeatedly asking the audience to question everything they’ve seen. While the script wants to make every reveal seem like a masterstroke, most of them are visible from a mile away. Even the climax, which clearly aims for a gasp-worthy ending, feels predictable.

Director Sidharth P Malhotra tries to pack in a lot in a single film. There’s a courtroom drama, a murder mystery, a family emotional arc, and even commentary on privilege and justice. Individually, each idea has merit, but together they compete for attention. The film keeps changing lanes without really deciding what it wants to be, which makes the narrative feel fragmented rather than entertaining.

As its title suggests, ace Believe that he is holding this ace card till the end. Unfortunately, by the time he places that card on the table, the spectator has already guessed the hand. Despite an impressive cast and an interesting premise, Malhotra’s thriller never quite takes off on a winning note. What could have been an entertaining legal thriller ultimately becomes a familiar game with a very obvious ending.