BADLA

Image Source - IMDb

Plans were made to watch Badla and Archie excitedly messaged on the Whatsapp group that the movie Badla was an adaptation of a Spanish film, The Invisible Guest and announced that she would be watching it before Badla. The five of us sat in the movie hall with our thinking caps on whilst Archie just had a smirk on. She knew how the movie ended and was eager to see if we’d discern the plot.

Archie informs that besides the gender reversal of roles and the extra tadka offered by Bollywood filmmakers, Badla is an exact frame to frame adaptation of the original.

I was excited to watch the film more so for the Amitabh- Taapsee collaboration after Pink. Also, I happen to enjoy whodunits.

PLOT: Naina Sethi (Taapsee Pannu) is accused of murdering her lover, Arjun (Tony Luke) and is on house arrest. News of her arrest and murder is making the headlines as Naina has recently won a prestigious business award. Naina’s only hope of getting an acquittal is Badal Gupta (Amitabh Bachchan), a meticulous lawyer engaged by Naina’s lawyer Jimmy (Manav Kaul).

Badal comes to Naina’s apartment to extract information and deconstruct the entire murder scenario in an attempt to find a loophole in her case. The entire movie revolves around Naina presenting her version of the events and Badal questioning and challenging the same in order to be able to recreate and present a distorted set of facts that could set Naina free.

Naina’s story opens up a Pandora’s box that involves another crime.

Did Naina kill Arjun? Is Naina involved in this other crime? Does Badal succeed in getting Naina an acquittal?

The film is directed by Sujoy Ghosh (of Kahaani fame) and produced by Red Chillies Entertainment.

Needless to say, Amitabh and Taapsee are a treat to watch. The film also had Amrita Singh in it, playing a distraught mother and this was a surprise entry as I didn’t recall seeing her in the trailer. She’s the woman behind the camera in the poster. Tony Luke who plays Taapsee’s lover makes his debut in Hindi cinema and it’s refreshing to see an actor with a strong “South Indian” accent who isn’t in the film to merely serve as a comic relief and doesn’t dress in a lungi sipping lassi from a coconut. Sadly, Manav Kaul has only a minor role in the movie. 

If you liked Kahaani (the first one), you will like this film too. Typical to most thrillers, this film is fast paced and has a gripping storyline. Shot in Glasgow, the movie will have you enjoying the panoramic views only to be jolted out of your seat half way through that. Whilst some critics have labelled the film predictable (this could be true if you are one of those ardent fans of Agatha Christie and you’ve learnt from her books to suspect even the imperceptible commuter at the station with the scarf and big sunglasses who sneaks out of the train only after giving a furtive glance and a half-smile), be rest assured, there are many red herrings thrown in that will have you constantly second guessing Naina and Badal’s next move.

Despite being an adaptation, the writers have succeeding in infusing Hindu mythology into the storyline with Amitabh Bachchan quoting the Mahabharata. The dialogues are catchy, the kind that make you want to repeat them while walking out of the hall. :D

Would it be a spoiler if I were to say that the name of the movie is a spoiler in itself?

Archie and I have decided to mimick movie posters or rather mimick the expressions of the actors on the posters. We started off with the Gully Boy poster. We scoured the length of the floor only to find a teensy poster of Badla. You can find our pictures on our Insta page.  If you like our posts, please follow us on Insta and FB.

Andhadhun

What is life? It depends on the liver.

Image Source - IMDb

The film stars Ayushmann Khurrana, Tabu and Radhika Apte. With a star cast such as this, a trailer that keeps you at your wit’s end and generous reviews being splashed about, it was no wonder I went to watch this movie with high expectations.

Ever since I’ve started reviewing movies for the blog, I’ve been watching them with a critical eye, nitpicking at flaws and delving too much into the intricacies of filmmaking and scriptwriting. I sometimes miss those good old days of having a monosyllabic opinion. If I were to do that, I’d go, “Hmm... Interesting”. That’s how I felt when I stepped out of the theatre.

Andhadhun (not to be confused with Andhadhund meaning excessive, rash) is inspired by L’Accordeur (The Piano Tuner), a French Short Film.

PLOT (Probably the briefest plot on our blog): The film is about a blind piano player whose sole aim is to make money to be able to relocate to London and play the piano there. However, he unwillingly gets entangled in a murder. What follows are his frantic attempts at trying to escape the murderers that ends up with unearthing of secrets and major plot twists.

Any more revelation of the plot and it would have spoilers!

It goes without saying that the actors have done their jobs well.

I liked Tabu the best in the movie. She’s a brilliant actress.  It’s lovely to see her don roles that befit her age and personality and not being merely typecast into a role one would “expect” her to play.

Sadly, Radhika Apte didn’t have much of a role in the movie.

Ayushmann, Manav Vij (who looks like a beefed up Aamir Khan) and Anil Dhawan were good too.

Piano music makes up for most of the background music, the tenor oscillating with the mood of the protagonist (Ayushmann Khurrana). Such a background score comprising of one instrument rather than an orchestra, often brings a sense of realism to the scene and I like it that way.  

The USP of the movie is definitely the twists in the plot. I applaud the makers of the trailer who have craftily inserted scenes that reveal only so much that would make you want to watch the film, only to be then given a jolt within the first 15 minutes.

There were some brilliant moments that made us go “aaah,we didn’t expect that”, in fact one of the scenes towards the end almost had me clapping. (Yes, I’m the kind who claps in excitement).

The movie ends in a cliffhanger and it is left to the audience to interpret it in the manner he or she chooses to. Some suspect a sequel in the making, but I doubt that but then again I have been proven wrong in the past ( Black Panther, ahem...)

This is not your typical Bollywood film. No wait, I take that back. We have seen such a massive shift from the earlier norm of boy meets girl, saves her from the villain and the audience is invited to witness their happily ever after moment. But this film moves a step ahead. It is free from undying love, untainted protagonist, item numbers (Am I allowed to use the word ‘Item’? Or is that being sexist?)...

Here come the brickbats:

There is too much of an attempt to keep the audience occupied with twists that at times it becomes a little too hotchpotch and in that process the Director/scriptwriter loses sense of the rational that has the audience questioning “As if that could happen in real life”.

I wouldn’t ask you not to watch it in the theatres. Go if you must, but remember seeing is not always believing ;)

Here’s a fun fact, I read online - Sriram Raghavan, who is the Director of this film featured a blind girl playing the piano in the song Raabta in his film Agent Vinod.