Ashdoc's movie review---Badlapur

by ashdoc Tue Feb 24, 2015 2:29 pm

Raghav's ( played by Varun Dhawan ) life and career is going great guns , till a bizarre and cruel twist of fate tears it apart totally . A pair of bank robbers (Liak and Harman played by Nawazuddin Siddiqui and Vinay Pathak respectively ) try to escape the police in his wife's car and in the mayhem one of them kills both his wife and son....

While Raghav is left to try to pick up the pieces of what is left his life , Liak is captured by the police and blames the murders on his partner Harman---who has escaped . The movie then follows the trajectories of the life of the three protagonists in the situation---Raghav , Liak and Harman .

Liak remains in Jail for years on end , justly paying for his sins . Harman escapes with the money to start a hotel business with a sexy and hot young wife---Koko , played by Radhika Apte . But the victim Raghav just cannot cope with the loss of his family and just wanders off into the wilderness , and finds succour only when he reaches a city with a strange name---Badlapur , the city of revenge....

....And when the victim finds his refuge in a city with such a name one can be sure that at some point in the film he is going to go for what he truly wants---revenge , what else....

So for how long does he wait for his revenge ??
And whom does he take the revenge against ??
Is he successful in his bid to take revenge ??

But the real question is---is the revenge worth it ?? Is it right to remain ruminating over past events ( however brutal they are ) and waste your life ?? Didn't a great man from this very nation tell the world that an eye for an eye will turn the whole world blind ??

So who is going to show Raghav the light---about the futility of revenge ??
Watch the movie for the answers , for it delivers this message with grit and also in a surprising manner .

Nawazuddin Siddiqui (Liak ) is the one who makes us laugh at his taunts to the other jailbirds and anger us with his evil ; he is the one who frustrates the police with his refusal to tell his partner's name even after savage beatings at the same time he blames the partner for the murders , and he is the one who surprises us by loving his girlfriend with unexpected passion....So the movie rests squarely and fairly on the shoulders of Nawazuddin to deliver an acting performance , and he comes up with a super performance . For his enemy ( Raghav ) is played by the inexperienced Varun Dhawan , and even though Varun has tried his best , his inexperience clearly shows....Especially when the movie moves to 15 years later in time , Varun ( who is a young man ) looks too young to be in his 40s . The effort to make him look older with a beard has failed .

But the others ( like Liak's girlfriend played by Huma Qureishi ) and Radhika Apte ( Koko ) play their roles all too well , and they play their roles with sensuousness....I found myself remembering Radhika in a sexy blue negligee and in a sari with backless and sleeveless blouse and above all half nude in a bra and panty almost going to be raped---all scenes which she has done in the film . The film is clearly for adults only and not for children....
Yami Gautam ( the murdered wife ) is beautiful as usual , but she does not have to accept such smallish roles---considering her beauty .
Divya Dutta wears backless blouses too , and looks enticing for her age .

The music is mostly in the background , but is entirely appropriate for the situation . The songs are worth remembering .
The film has no fancy locations , and the budget for making it must have been low . Hopefully even a modest run at the box office will give it a profit .

....And a profit it does deserve , considering the fact that it is gripping and has twists and turns that keep you guessing as to what will happen next till the very end . It cannot be called a true action packed thriller . But the violence when it comes , does make a decisive impact .

Verdict---Good .