The best thing about “Badlapur” is that Sriram Raghavan is
back! He seems to have put the very disappointing “Agent Vinod” behind him, and
delivers a tense revenge thriller with many twists and turns - more in line with
his impressive “Ek Hasina Thi” and “Johnny Gaddar”. Though “Badlapur” is far
from perfect, it gets a lot right and is a good watch. One the whole, however,
it left me with the feeling that it could have been a lot better.
Raghu’s (Varun Dhawan) life is devastated when his wife
Misha (Yami Gautam) and son are killed during a bank robbery getaway. One of
the robbers, Liak (Nawazuddin Siddiqui) is arrested and sent to prison as he
refuses to name his partner, who has gotten away with the loot. With only
revenge on his mind, and 20 years to wait, Raghu leaves his life behind and
moves to a (conveniently named) town “Badlapur”. 15 years later, when Liak is
released on medical grounds, Raghu orchestrates his elaborate revenge. As the
parallel stories of Raghu and Liak move forward, the line between good and evil
blurs as they seek out what they want.
The caption “Don’t Miss the Beginning” is completely justified
by the great opening sequence of the bank robbery getaway. The tension during
the scene is electrifying, and Raghavan really shows his class here. In fact,
the first half is very good, and despite the second half being the one where
the plot actually moves forward and is filled with Raghavan’s trademark twists
and turns, it slacks off. There is some very good writing from Arjit Biswas and Raghavan, which is clear from some cracking dialogues and genuinely funny moments amidst the constant suspense. But, as with his previous works, it’s’ Raghavan’s
ability to keep the audience guessing and never giving them what they expect that
makes this movie so deliciously exciting.
The movie is rated ‘A’ for a reason. The movie deals with a
topic that is controversial in itself, and it is a very violent movie. It’s
good that the violence is justified by the plot, as opposed to being
there just for the sake of creating gory images. In fact, it’s the slow build-up to the explosive
scenes that are fun to watch. Another aspect, which I suspect would be the
cause for some debate, is the treatment of women by the characters in the movie,
which borders on sadistic. But I’ll stay clear of it for now.
Raghavan keeps the characters in his story to a minimum, and
each character has an important role to play in taking the story forward. The supporting cast, which includes Huma Qureshi, Radhika Apte, Vinay Pathak, Kumud Mishra and Pratima Kannan, does well to realize
this and perform brilliantly without worrying about their screen time. But of
course, the movie belongs to the two protagonists. Varun Dhawan gives it his
all to play the tortured Raghu, but I couldn’t help thinking that in the hands
of a more seasoned actor, the emotional torment and thirst for revenge of Raghu
would have been conveyed better. It’s refreshing that Dhawan tries to get out
of his chocolate-boy image and picks a very challenging role, and he has
clearly made a very bold gamble which mostly works, but it falls a bit short in
some of the more demanding scenes. Nonetheless, it is a milestone in what I
hope will be a continued upward career graph. Unsurprisingly, it is Nawazuddin
Siddiqui who completely steals the show as the oily Liak with his usual brilliance. He does
justice to some good writing, delivering the witty lines in a way that few
actors can.
It would be remiss of me not to mention the ending of the
movie. I was completely blown away by the idea behind the ending, which deals
with themes of revenge, redemption, forgiveness, and good versus evil in a way
that I have not seen before. Here again, Raghavan tried to give the viewers
what they could never expect, forcing them to dwell on the message. However, the actual execution is so
underwhelming that I could not help but be disappointed. This was the greatest
missed opportunity for me. But it still remains a novel idea.
