Blackmail: The Good, the Bad and the Ugly

Blackmail: The Good, the Bad and the Ugly

Blackmail movie review

 

Cast – Irrfan Khan, Kirti Kulhari, Divya Dutta, Arunoday Singh, Omi Vaidya
Directed by – Abhinay Deo
Produced by – Bhushan Kumar, Krishan Kumar, Abhinay Deo and Apurba Sengupta
Written by – Parveez Sheikh, Pradhuman Singh Mall (dialogues)
Cinematography by – Jay Oza
Edited by – Huzefa Lokhandwala
Production House – T-Series Films, RDP Motion Pictures
Duration – 2 hr 19 minutes

Movie Plot

One thing you can be sure from an Irrfan Khan starrer is that you get to see some great performances. And getting equally good performances from the other stars is a plain bonus, which this film abundantly provides. Dev Kaushal (Irrfan) is a laidback middle-class man with a mediocre job in a toilet paper roll company. He is stuck in a loveless marriage which has turned him into a voyeur who gets off on pictures of his female colleagues after the office hours. The stereotype of a desperate guy with a gentleman’s demeanour suits his character to a tee. But do not for a second think that this is some plain harmless, regular guy with a dull life. In fact, he is a borderline neurotic, who has some tricks up his sleeves. This side of him would have stayed dormant if he didn’t catch his wife Reena (Kirti Kulhari) with another man. Now, Irrfan is not your ultra-macho aggressive guy who would confront them like he should, in fact, he is more of a quiet type with a wicked mind who would plot, plot and plot until he gets his revenge and that’s how the chaos(and the story actually) begins. To his advantage, he finds an easy way in blackmailing his wife’s boyfriend Ranjit Arora (Arunoday Singh) for his money.

Ranjit, who is also an ex-flame of Reena, is not really some manly attractive guy she has chosen over her husband. In fact, he is equally a loser like Irrfan, if not more. He is married to a humiliating, disdainful wife but he tolerates everything because he has an insanely rich father-in-law who gives him a hefty allowance and all other luxurious things one can desire for. Now that serves an easy bait for Irrfan to torture Ranjit. The plot gets more and more entangled and messier until everyone gets sucked into the vortex.

Film Review

One of the good things about the movie is that it is far from unpredictable, in fact, it lures you to think it is exactly that and then takes you by surprise. The movie is an interesting blend of suspense and thriller, which frequently takes the help of dark humour to keep you raptly engaged. Talking about the performances, Irrfan Khan brilliantly portrays the character of the scorned husband, burning with the desire for revenge. Another honorary mention goes to Divya Dutta who does complete justice to her role.
The only thing bad or ugly about the film is that it is a bit slow, especially in the first hour where it stretched unnecessarily. The overall story-telling feels real and the film is definitely above average.

Our Verdict

They don’t make every day a cool thriller, so our advice would be to go for it and stay glued till the end. Thank us later.