Do not miss
the beginning. The advertisements had warned us. But the director perhaps was
not forewarned of the battles that on time regulars like us faced. Indians love
walking into the theatres after the lights have settled off for the show thrust
their ample behinds at seated patrons as they squeeze past. Wait, we forgot
they have a lovely family discussion about where their seats are likely to be
in front of other patrons who patiently watch the group to move on. They then
make their way balancing the host of goodies and drinks and in the process also
trying to munch. There are 5 guys in the rows ahead of us tweeting about the
first scene with their screens set at full brightness. There is a man in the
row behind us explaining each word to his wife loud enough for half the theatre
to hear. No Sriram you must factor in these aspects before alerting us not to
miss the beginning. Yes the beginning looked quite natural.
Varun thankfully not looking like he walked out of ‘Student of the year’ but looking as fresh cavorts with Yami in what looked at the beginning like trendy flashbacks. Back to a happy family with kid. Before the happy family scenario can settle in things go wrong and youthful marketing whiz kid who sells pushups is suddenly relegated to finding his own closure on an event that shatters him physically and psychologically. It is indeed so difficult not to destroy creative works while trying to give insight into the work and at the same time not reveal too much and spoil the fun for the future audiences.
The story is
laced with well etched out characters like Nawazuddin Siddiqui, Huma Qureshi,
Vinay Pathak, Radhika Apte and Divya Dutta. These characters stay with you.
Even bit role characters like that of a police officer Mishra stay with you.
The story plods along in a relaxed but very disjointed manner shuttling between
flashbacks and the current day as prisoner Nawazuddin Siddiqui spending his
days in prison while lady love Huma Qureshi playing a sex worker waits for him
outside. Divya Dutta in the role of a social worker looks satisfied with her
role and looks different from her more strongly scripted role Bhaag Milkha
Bhaag.
The director
appears to handle the film in different moods along different segments in a
Quentin Tarantino nonlinear film making style You get the impression that he is
not sure if he belongs to the Anurag Kashyap camp of realistic movie making or
a hardcore thriller of the RGV heyday.
A lot was
expected from Varun after his ‘mudder’ teaser a scene where he simply excels
and he does not disappoint. But unfortunately for him Nawazzuddin just races
leagues ahead. He burns the screen with his rocking natural style and approach.
He makes his characters so believable that you do not believe that he is a good
man in real life. Huma Qureshi is one of the most beautiful actresses and
one who can act. Vinay Pathak is tastefully subdued and shows the strength in
not overplaying one’s role. Radhika Apte playing the businessman’s wife does
justice with her sincerity.
I just
love the shades of grey throughout the movie. There are no black and white
characters in the movie and even the main protagonist is not spared when he is
accused by a murderer of being worse than him because he was acting without any
real motives. That was a stunner of a dialogue.
One may wonder at the total lack of clarity or relating of any storyline in this review but just talking anything about a storyline will kill the experience of the movie for those who want to watch it.
For me the
movie has outstanding performances, excellent characterization, and story
with good scope not realized, restless editing and jerky story telling.
There is a lot of anger built up throughout the movie and the last thing you want to do is to pick up each phone as you walk out and crush it under your feet as patrons tweet away giving out the unusual ending. What spoilsports! Wish we could do a Badlapur on the Tweeters!
You cannot
peel your eyes away from Nawaz, Varun, Huma, Vinay, Radhika, and Divya in that
order. But the movie does leave you feeling short of full satisfaction. It will
get accolades for Sriram, Varun and Nawaz will walk off with the best
supporting actor for many award ceremonies in future. Now if only the
story had been believable and fully realistic.