Badlapur on the tweeters !

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.