Director Sriram Raghavan has certainly got a solid fan following among the lovers of crime thrillers since his brilliant crime-noire films EK HASEENA THI (2004) and JOHNY GADDAR (2007). His fascination with novels of James Hadley Chase (and more), Hitchcock classics, old Hindi thrillers, director Vijay Anand or Ram Gopal Varma is already known to many. But the reputation did take a beating with his AGENT VINOD in 2012 through which he visibly tried to play the commercial cards more, probably on the instructions on some well-known established names. Anyway the good news is that the director is back to his original genre/form with BADLAPUR that though might not surpass the brilliance seen in his first two films, but still becomes a must watch ‘out of the box’ revenge thriller mainly due to its crafty execution and intense performances.To give you the most important instruction of watching BADLAPUR which in fact is mentioned in its tag line too, the film needs to be seen from its very first scene itself like a mandatory clause. Putting it more directly for the ones who reach the theatre late, you might not be able to feel the pain felt by its characters or relate with the revenge taken by its main protagonist more intensely, if you haven’t seen BADLAPUR right from the beginning, witnessing its very first action sequence (in the first 5 minutes only) giving you a severe emotional shock like never before. So please take a serious note of it to feel the movie in its entirety for sure.
Clearing another speculation about the project, it isn’t that bloody dealing with the gore as expected and has its own lighter moments too entertaining the viewer through some black humour. Emphasizing on an emotional backdrop, it does have few brutally painful action and sex sequences bringing you on to the edge of your seat and thus remains a strictly ADULT movie too, putting it straight.
Revolving around an all routine revenge storyline, BADLAPUR actually deviates from the usual stuff because of its finely tuned, unpredictable script progression and a highly engaging execution, focusing just on its subject right from its first frame to the last. All the compromises seen in Sriram’s AGENT VINOD are thankfully not there and the film simply wins you over in its first half due to all noteworthy performances led by Nawazuddin & Varun, a well written wicked humour and the suspense factor kept intact introducing a couple of new characters just around the interval.
The excellence continues post intermission with another talented lady Radhika Apte leading it from the front and she is truly superb in her few strong sequences to say the least. The unexpectedly bold and shocking insertions keep coming at regular intervals till the film starts losing its grip somehow towards the end going into a longer length than required. And then a (sudden) meaningful climax redefining vengeance with a novel twist (that is bound to meet some mixed reactions) actually turns the film into something that would be appreciated by a selected section of audience only, more into watching western and world cinema to be precise.
No doubt the sex related sequences in its last hour, offer enough material to the viewers to get shocked as well as entertained quite weirdly. Yet at the same time, it offers some unconvincing points too that remain unanswered till the end hampering the overall solid impact of the film quite honestly. (Spoliers Ahead)
For instance, everything seems to be going in Varun’s favour unconditionally in the script and the film also portrays all its woman characters in a questionable suspicious grey shade other than Yami. Further the body dragging act becomes confusing with the sudden cut after a scene with Divya and then one is forced to think that how come only a mercy application from a victim can help a hard-core criminal come out of the jail who has already got a dubious record of making several attempts of jail-break in the gone years? Moreover Varun killing the innocent girl Radhika, who was not even involved or knew anything about the crime committed long back before her love marriage also looked quite unjustified & strange?
In other words, watching a comparatively weaker second half, I felt as if the director was deliberately focusing on the individual thrilling (read entertaining) sequences and the surprise factor more than the required amount of passion backing the vengeance. As a result where the first half strongly makes you feel the pain felt by Varun losing his entire family in just few minutes, the last hour is not able to take that feeling to a crescendo converting it into a real gem, that in fact reminded me of a another similar revenge based English film titled DEATH SENTENCE (2007).
Having said that, what still makes BADLAPUR a worth appreciating and worth watching movie is its great performances from the entire cast and the director’s engaging execution who successfully keeps the viewer glued to the screen through many unforeseen twists and turns like a fast paced crime novel heading towards an experimental climax. The film without any doubt belongs to both Nawazuddin and Varun together wherein Nawazuddin obviously scores much higher giving another sparkling performance of his career depicting the exact psyche of a born criminal who possesses the same twisted mindset forever despite his growing age. And the best thing about his portrayal is, that the viewers both hate and love him together unintentionally, for which the credit entirely goes to the talented director alone.
Varun Dhawan truly deserves praises to try such an unconventional character at this stage of his young career with conviction. He looks great in most of the sequences showcasing the rage, anger and depression. But also looks too young to play it at a few places lacking the required depth as I personally felt. Yet his sincere effort to play the tough character is indeed worth applauding moving ahead on the path of becoming a great actor in the coming years. In the supporting cast I truly loved the new get up of Vinay Pathak playing it real well and the short cameos of both Murli Sharma and Gopal K Singh.
Talking about the ladies in the film, its really a treat to watch them all led by Huma Qureshi and Yami Gautam as the two big names. But where Huma makes the best of the opportunity given playing the cunning prostitute, I really felt bad seeing Yami once again doing the same small role as seen in her last film ACTION JACKSON. Divya Dutta, Ashwani Khalsekar & Pratima Kazmi are good as usual playing a NGO activist, the detective and Nawaz’s mother respectively, but the one who manages to stay in your mind for long remains Radhika Apte, leaving a teasing impact with only a few of her wicked scenes unarguably.
Anil Mehta's cinematography supports the film superbly and so does the background score and minimal use of few good tracks composed by Sachin-Jigar coming just at the right moments without affecting the narration. Sadly, the same cannot be said about the editing that does play the avoidable spoilsport in its final hour.
In all, with a more fine-tuned second half taking care of the pace & flaws together surely would have turned it into a rare, path breaking masterpiece on the lines of EK HASEENA THI (2004) and JOHNY GADDAR (2007). Yet in the present avatar, BADLAPUR is a performance driven film led by Nawazuddin, Radhika and Varun, proving to be one of the better projects of the recent times that should ideally taste box office success to support the much desired change in Hindi Cinema.
(And once again reminding - Don't miss the beginning for anything.)
Rating : 3.5 / 5
(Note : The film is based on the novel "DEATH'S DARK ABYSS" by Massimo Carlotto)
