Badlapur

Rating : 6/10
Release Date : 20th February, 2015
Time : 134 minutes
Director, Writer : Sriram Raghavan; Co-Writer: Arijit Biswas, Pooja Surti; Music : Sachin-Jigar
Starring : Varun Dhawan, Nawazuddin Siddiqui, Huma Quereshi, Vinay Pathak, Divya Dutta, Radhika Apte



A chance encounter during a bank robbery leads to unwanted, unnecessary death and a vicious cycle of revenge that lasts over fifteen years. Its not pretty, its not pacy and it most definitely doesn’t follow a path treaded by most Hindi films. However, not everything makes sense and it doesn’t really hold our attention all the way through, though the climax is interesting.

Nawazuddin and Vinay’s getaway after a bank job goes horribly wrong and results in the death of Yami Gautam and her young child. Nawaz is caught, jailed but not before he is able to let his partner escape with the loot. Varun Dhawan is the sadly bereaved husband, father, who’s world comes crashing around him. And the twenty year sentence given to Nawaz for his part in the robbery (he claims his partner did the killing, he was merely the driver), is not enough for Varun…

Kumud Mishra is the police inspector who hates an unsolved case on his record – especially as the cops are never able to track down the partner or the loot. Pratima Kannan is Nawaz’s mother, who can’t believe her son is a killer. Huma is Nawaz’s favourite call-girl, who also doesn’t believe he is a killer. And later in the movie, Vinay Pathak and his wife, Radhika Apte play a critical part, as does Divya Dutta as an NGO worker who works with prisoners.

I really liked Varun in this vengeful avatar – he hit the right buttons in a role outside his comfort zone. Nawazuddin does full justice to a role right up his street, especially in the closing stages. The ensemble cast is excellent. The music really good. But the fatal flaw is you don’t quite understand why some of the characters chose the paths they do – even if the end objective does make sense. And that can really make you wonder, even disconnect with what is shown happening on the screen…

Life can be cruel. Revenge can be salvation. And where better to find it than in Badlapur…