Badla (Spoiler free) movie review

So here is a review you have all been waiting for

BADLA

DIRECTOR – SUJOY GHOSH

CAST- AMITABH BACCHAN, TAPSEE PANNU, AMRITA SINGH & DETAILS…LOTS OF DETAILS

What? How is this possible you ask? How is it possible that a comic book/movie lover like me hasnt watched Marvel’s latest movie – Captain Marvel?! Well three things – a) The trailers didn’t excite me. B) Marvel posing this as an achievement in feminism turned me even more away from the movie (Jesus it’s a commercial movie for God’s sake not a revolution. Besides it took you guys 21 movies to get here…DC did it in their 4^th movie)  c) I honestly don’t really care about any movie between the great cliff-hanger ending of Infinity war and Endgame. I learned that the hard way when I watched Antman and the Wasp. It is a movie I increasingly hate for some reason. A movie so totally pointless that it disgusts me now as to why I spent money and time on it And d) Yes there is a 4^th thing too- I honestly don’t care for the fact that most Marvel movies are now becoming an advertisement for their next one. The post credit scene has gone from being fun fan-service to being the most important story telling tool that MCU has. But lest this turn into a rant, I decided to give myself a break from mediocre comic book filler movies (i.e. 70% of the MCU) to watch Badla.

Why watch Badla? (You do ask a lot of questions to conveniently make the narrative interesting, don’t you hypothetical reader?) Well, firstly coz it’s titled Badla…I love a good revenge story. Secondly it has Big B in it. And Tapsee Pannu. And is directed by Sujoy Ghosh…the same guy who directed Kahaani (and a host of other movies like Jhankar beats). Basically it has all the ingredients necessary to convince me to watch a Bollywood movie.

Badla is the story of Naina Sethi (Tapsee) who has been accused of murdering her lover Ajay in a hotel room. She claims she was assaulted as well and the murderer was a person trying to blackmail them both. The room was locked and the windows were shut, no one could’ve walked in or out of the room. She is telling her story to hot-shot lawyer Badal Gupta (Big B) who assures her that he can get her out only if he knows all the details. The details then start unravelling. The movie is an official remake of the Spanish film – The Invisible Guest.

 I really love murder mysteries and who doesn’t? I love the exercise of trying to outguess the movie and the sad part of being a writer is that you can spot the twists coming a mile away usually. So for me the game stopped being one of ‘Who did it?’ but one of ‘how are they gonna reach this point and will the movie’s logic hold up?’ I guessed the twist of Kahani within first 10 mins and still fucking loved the movie. I guessed the twist of this one within the first 3 minutes and…kinda liked this movie.

First the positives- Big B is…just Big B. I mean anyone else and this movie would have been so-so. I think it’s after a long time I watched him in a theatre and I firmly believe he should do more such thriller dramas. With age action thrillers may not suit him, but I need him to do intelligent cocky roles than playing quirky grandpas. He is charismatic, magnetic and every other adjective you can think of attaching to the greatest superstar Bollywood will ever produce. Needless to say he is obviously the best thing about the movie. Tapsee Pannu is really good as well. Although the script kinda makes her character behave oddly at times, she keeps with Bacchan. Their chemistry was very essential since the majority of the movie is 2 people sitting on a table discussing a story. Amrita Singh in a supporting role is great as well.

Now comes my problem with the movie…forget the fact that it is predictable…even wifey found it predictable…the twist was apparent if you were paying attention. But as I said before, my concern isn’t the twist. I don’t watch movies for the twist these days…it’s just that the path to the inevitable surprise isn’t as interesting here. It’s like a magic trick (Yes am referencing The Prestige here)…we go in not because we don’t know that it’s not true….we go in wanting to be fooled. If a trick can really pull the carpet from under your feet that’s great…but that rarely happens. I at least expect the magician to make some effort to distract me. I appreciate the craft and the effort behind it.  Here although right before the climax there was some kind of doubt created in your mind about the subjective nature of truth and unreliability of narration but throughout the movie it was almost blatantly obvious. And when it finally reaches the twist, it tries to be way too smarter than it should’ve been and frankly has a Race movies level twist (Although it’s there in the original movie as well, it’s still dumb).

Badla is a good movie that could’ve used some more tightening of the script, has some great performances is very enjoyable but tries too hard to have that ultimate twist moment. It proves that adaptation is an art and sometimes improvements can be made to the original as well.

I would recommend watching this ­- only if you have Nothing else to do. (that too preferably stream it on Netflix/Amazon)

PS - SHAZAM trailer is out! April 5th cant wait!