Badlapur | Hindi Film | Bollywood Movie Reviews

Revenge is a very scary thing. You cannot think of leaving the demon unpunished and if you punish him/her you will eventually find that you are stripped down to his/her level. Probably, this is the philosophy – the great epic – The Mahabharat (aka The Mahabharata) tries telling us. Probably that is the reason – forgiving – is considered the noble and more importantly wise act.

In the same regards we remember the Hindi film Virasat, where after some of the killings the protagonist burst his feelings and ask “what you have made of me!?”. One of the brilliantly acted scene of Anil Kapoor, which was scripted and directed even more brilliantly.

Badlapur is the story of the protagonist and his revenge spree. Though the movie could have been easily turned into – just another commercial masala film – it is not. Studded with fantastic acting performances the movie have a lot of shocking elements you may not want to vouch for. The main thing, the typical viewer don’t like to go with is, the gray shades of the protagonist character. We used to love the black and the white. The antagonist has to be dark, and the hero should be pure – as per the standard perception. The film explores the dark shades of the protagonist and eventually some brighter sides of the antagonist too.

In terms of performances, Nawazuddin Siddiqui is the scene stealer. The fate take very long for him to get recognised and land him meaty roles. But now as he started getting the opportunities (like Boman Irani) he is giving the best. You cannot think of any other actor playing the role of Liak. Varun Dhavan is equally competent. He is very mature in terms of deciding various roles. On one hand he keeps doing the typical masala movies, which are just complete entertainers (like Main Tera Hero), he also does intense roles in movies like Badlapur. He is steadily proving his acting metal.

Vinay Pathak is impressive in small role. Same we can say for Divya Dutta. Huma Qureshi is just fine. Yami’s role is very small, but her presence is felt through out the movie. Radhika Apte impresses.

Sriram Raghvan is in form as a writer and director both. Each of his film is surely to have dark script and brilliant performances. This film is no exception. The cinematography is commendable. The background music adds to the positives of the movie. The movie have no scope for traditional Bollywood movie songs, but still, the music album is worth to go for. In addition to power packed performances, the well written script and dialogs are two more positive factors which works in favor of the movie.

Let us take a brief look at the story of the film.

Two masked fellows were robbing a bank and a mother-son duo was enjoying their day by doing some routine. Their fates meet each other when the robbers were trying to run away after completing their task. They choose the lady’s car and on the way one of them kills the mother-son in a course of events! One of the robbers were able to run away while the other gets captured as per their plan.

Raghav aka Raghu – is at the sad receiving ends of the incidents. The killed lady was his wife and the boy was his son. He got an emotional shock which change him completely from a happy-go-lucky guy with a promising career to someone with a totally different person. Theirs was an inter-community love marriage and he loved his family more than anything in the world. He meet the captured robber – Liak – a very smart, transforming fellow who can jump into any emotional character at any point of time.

Liak keep saying that he was the driver and he was not responsible for deaths. It was his partner who did it. However if you have watched the beginning of the movie you got to know that he is a liar. He got 20 years in prison. Raghu tries everything to find out what actually happened and who is responsible for his loss.

Liak also tries prison-breaking several times but all his attempts were failed. After 15 years in jail, he is still the person he was. He however hadn’t reveal his partner’s identity. He was then detected with cancer. A social worker meet Raghav and plea him to forgive Liak and apply to release of Liak so he can get better treatment and met with his death peacefully.

What will Raghu’s response?

The rest is better to watch on screen.

As said earlier, in order to punish the criminal one took steps which eventually turn him/her into the replica of his/her counterpart. A lot of people will not like the last part of the movie and may not found it ideal. The life and circumstances are out of control at various stages. Of course, we cannot justify the brutality as the answer of brutality, but on the other hand, we cannot fill the vacuum of the loss of loved ones.

It is out and out Sriram Raghavan film which is only for the adults. Crime thriller lovers will like it for its presentation and superb performances. One however needs to understand that it is a film and its effects should be wore off after completing the movie. One have to be wise and trust his own wisdom at the end.

Curtsey: Poster – Wikipedia, Trailer – YouTube

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