Badlapur Movie Review - A Gripping Tale with A Subtle Message

Movie: Badlapur
Language: Hindi
Running Time: 132 Minutes
CBFC Rating: A
Cast: Varun Dhawan, Naazzudin Siddique, Huma Qureshi, Yami Gautam, Vinay Pathak and Radhika Apte

Expectations:
Badlapur comes from director Sridhar Raghavan three years after the debacle called 'Agent Vinod'. And it has 'Varun Dhawan' in the lead, someone touted to be the next 'bhai' in town, rather than anything else. There are also comparisons to the 'Ek Villain' storyline, which had released last year. Unfortunately, the irony of it all is that 'Ek Villain' was an outright Indianized version of  the cult Korean movie 'I saw the Devil' and 'Badlapur' is a pretty original attempt, as far as this reviewer could see. Either way, the expectations for the movie was muted and the only thing that was being hyped about the movie was Atif Aslam's Jeena Jeena. Which was sad, because this movie is so much more.

Plot:
Raghav (Varun Dhawan) works at an ad-agency in Pune and is happily married to Misha (Yami Gautam) with a son. When a bank robbery by Liak (Nawazuddin Siddique) and Harmaan (Vinay Pathak) goes wrong, Misha and her son are caught in between as collateral damage and are left for dead. Liak lets his friend escape with a money promising to return soon, but gets caught by the police. With his world shattered, Raghav has only one goal in mind: revenge, and he would go any lengths to get his revenge. Liak, who realizes that Raghav would not let him live in peace decides it's enough being bad and tries to turn around his life for the better. Ultimately, what happens to both of them forms the rest of this intriguing plot.

Performances:
You can go to the movie doubting the acting prowess of Varun Dhawan. That is a good thing, because he will prove you wrong. In his small career of three movies, young Dhawan was the typical masala hero who can woo any girl and fight any villain. But not here. Badlapur is to Varun Dhawan what Haider was to Shahid Kapoor. Both as the loving husband and the shattered alcoholic, he shows that he can emote and even match the other veterans that he shares the screen space with. The transformation from a likeable, sweet husband to a brutal, unflinching murderer has been essayed perfectly and it will remain one of Varun Dhawan's best performances for some time to come.

The show-stealer, as expected is Nawazuddin Siddique. As Laik, the bank-robber who wants to make it big, he is the bad-guy you hate at first, but someone who grows on you and earns your sympathy as the tale unfolds. He is fragile, he makes some stupid mistakes (one grave one as well), he loves his mom and his Jhimli (Huma Qureshi) and he is almost likeable. Siddique had deftly underplayed a role which could have so easily become a typical anti-hero role. He is flawed, no doubt, but you tend to like him because you can relate to his flaws, so you kind of hope that Raghav does not kill him.

The other strong pillars of this movie are the leading ladies. Everyone's character has been carefully etched and they remain true to their roles. Yami Gautam's is actually a brief cameo. There are barely four scenes of her throughout and it could have dampened the pace if not for Yami's charming screen presence. But which Tamil girl is named 'Misha', Mr. Sridhar? Radhika Apte as Koko, who does not mind sleeping with a guy to save her husband and Huma Qureshi as Jhimli, the prostitute and love interest of Laik, essay bold roles and deserve special applause for doing what Indian leading ladies would consider 'offbeat' to do. In between all this, Divya Dutta holds her own as Shoba, an activist for prisoners' welfare.

In between all that, did I mention that Vinay Pathak as Harmaan, displays some brilliant histronics and effective underplay as the confused partner of Laik? That is like some dream cast and I haven't mentioned the greedy pot-bellied police officer and the protagonist's mom who wants to shop 'idli-dosa batter' for their south Indian in laws. Truly, the biggest plus of this movie is the detailing of each character, even the minute ones.

Where it does lack though is a seemingly swift shift from the present time to 15 years later where there isn't much of a change in appearance for any character. The jump in time is a little jarring and too convenient to push the story, but not convincing enough.

Technical Departments:
Music by Sachin-Jigar is apt and up the tempo of some scenes, especially the opening scene where you are biting your nails on the edge of your seat and cinematography by Anil Mehta is good especially because it's realistic and does not try anything too fancy. There's no unnecessary top-angle, bottom-angle, wide-angle shots to just show that the cinematographer to display his complete resume in this movie. That is refreshing, for a change!

Direction by Sridhar Raghavan gives this movie an edgy, dark mood as in Ek Hasina Thi and Jhonny Gaddar and nothing seems to be predictable. That is good because, there seems to be no pre-planned plot, just characters driving the story to an end. What a comeback this has been for him!

Positives:
Exemplary performances by a stellar cast, detailed characterization and the transformation of good to bad and vice versa are well documented.

Negatives:
The time-lapse of 15 years all of a sudden is jarring. The ending gets a bit preachy and was not exactly necessitated. It was obvious what was happening and I had found myself enjoying how unstated and beautiful the transformation of characters were and Raghavan spoils it in the end, where he makes Jhimli preach Raghav the virtues of non-violence. Oh, please!

Verdict:
Despite minor flaws, this is an enjoyable offering and a welcome return to form for Sridhar Raghavan.