Badlapur—Don’t Miss the Beginning, Review: Some things are missing

Funny line for a name. It is okay as a tag-line, but to make it part of the name? Did somebody object to the title Badlapur, and was the tag-line merged into the title to overcome that objection? Last December, a film titled Badlapur Boys was released in India, so there sure is some confusion. That one took its name from a fictional village in North India, and was about the game of kabaddi. Here, the name comes from a real Badlapur small town in Maharashtra. Moreover, the title is a pun on the word Badla, which could mean revenge or change in Hindi/Urdu. Going that way, the title would translate as Revengeville.

You aren’t going to miss crucial elements of a suspense story if you miss the beginning. But you will sure miss a slickly executed prologue. Copywriter Raghu (Varun Dhawan) gets a call from the police that his wife Misha (Yami Gautam) is battling for her life after a violent incident in which his son Robin has died. He rushes to Misha’s bedside and she dies after mumbling a few, inaudible sentences. Police have arrested one man, Layaq (Nawazuddin Siddiqui) but he claims he is not responsible, and he will not reveal the name of his accomplice, who, he says, caused the deaths.

Raghu is unable to take this shock and locks himself out of his friends and work-colleagues lives. He then moves from Pune to Badlapur, to live in anonymity. Layaq is sentenced to 20 years in jail. Consumed by a desire for revenge, Raghu, who was madly in love with his wife and child, hires a detective (who turns out be a woman, doing her own chores at home), and she gives him a lead to Layaq’s mother (Pratima Kannan). In turn, he manages to trace Layaq’s love interest, a prostitute named Jhimli (Huma Qureishi). So much for the detective. Now, its time for the anti-hero to take full control. A see-saw game then takes over, with focus constantly shifting, and sex and violence dominating (more violence than sex, needless to say).

Before we start analysing the 134 minutes that Badlapur occupies on the screen, let’s take a look at the three names mainly responsible for the product: Arijit Biswas, who wrote the story of Agent Vinod, Sridhar Raghavan, who contributed to Khakee, Dum Maaro Dum, Apharan, Bluff Master and Chandni Chowk to China, and Sriram Raghavan, Sridhar’s brother, an alumnus of the Film and Television Institute of India, Pune, and the man who directed Ek Haseena Thi, Johnny Gaddar and Agent Vinod. Put together, they have had varied success. Badlapur is not going to rank among the feathers in their caps. Which is a pity.

Dotted with so many refreshing plot points, some exhilarating performances, some snappy dialogue, at least three major twists in the plot and above average music score, it is disappointing that Badlapur ends-up like the Curate’s egg. Considering the format is a crime thriller/revenge drama, plot points lack detailing and loophole blocking, performances are more often than not engineered, dialogue is unintentionally funny on at least a dozen occasions, the twists come almost an hour apart, dragging the pace in the meantime and the music is slapped on to our ear-drums in full blast without exception, cutting from one piece to another, both varying tremendously in scales.

Varun Dhawan (Student of the Year, Main Tera Hero and Humpty Sharma Ki Dulhania; son of director David Dhawan) gets to play a character that that is 6-7 years younger than his real self, who then ages to 6-7 years older than he is now. We are shown very little of the younger Raghu, so most viewers will go back carrying images of a brooding, soft-spoken, cold-blooded, obsessive person, whose behaviour can never be predicted and whose mental state fluctuates as in a person with bi-polar disorder. He is confident and seems to be enjoying the attention. In a parallel lead, Nawazuddin shines right through, and the terrific talent that he is, does not try to outshine his co-actors even once.

After Vicky Donor, Action Jackson and Total Siyapaa, Yami Gautam has grown into a natural actress. Look out for the first scene and a bedroom scene (not for the usual connotations). Confident and in control, Huma Qureishi holds her own and does the ‘item number’ swaying and the simulated sex scene, without batting an eyelid. Suitably cast as Shobha, a divorced NGO worker, Divya Dutta plays a gullible victim of Raghu’s machinations. Vinay Pathak is hopelessly miscast as Harman, while Radhika Apte (Rakta Charitra, Lai Bhaari in Marathi) is a bit of a revelation, till her role turns into a caricature. For Murli Sharma, who is cast as a lame jail-bird, the role peters down into caricature. Zakir Hussain has a cameo as Patil, Jhimli’s ‘benefactor’. Pratima Kannan turns in a wholly credible portrayal.

Pooja Ladha Surti, who has been Raghavan’s associate in all his four films so far, has edited Badlapur. Although the pace is dual, with fast action interjected with slow goings on, the film seems to get over around the half-way mark. That it stretches to another hour may be both credit and discredit to the director and the editor. One shot perplexed almost everyone at the preview we saw on the 19^th of February at the PVR multiplex cinema in Juhu, Mumbai. Raghu is getting amorous with Shobha, and suddenly, they cut to him carrying a load wrapped in a plastic sheet, and running away. The next shot has him talking to Shobha. You can later guess what that insert was about. But why was it inserted?

You must ensure that you do not miss the beginning. However, you can do nothing about the things that are missing in the film.

Rating: **1/2

Trailer: http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x2bjm47_badlapur-hd-hindi-movie-teaser-trailer-2015-varun-dhawan-nawazuddin-siddiqui-huma-qureshi-yami-gauta_shortfilms