Movie Review

Rating :

Verdict : Good film, but one-time watch. It will hit hard on the box-office definitely. You can recommend it to your friends.

Badlapur, releasing this Friday is a normal Bollywood film if you consider it a film where the hero sets out to take revenge for the pain that he has to go through. This concept has been seen in many Hindi down the years. But what makes this one interesting is that it is chocolate boy Varun Dhawan is a completely different avatar. Instead of romancing heroines or delivering comic lines, Varun will be seen equipped with a hammer and with a tag, ‘killing machine’. Let’s see if this revenge drama stands out from numerous other revenge dramas in the past decades.
 
Story:
Raghu (Varun Dhawan) is a family man with a beautiful wife Misha (Yami Gautam) and a son. One unfortunate day, this happy family comes across something that they hadn’t imagined in their life. Nawazuddin Siddique (Laikh) and Vinay Pathak are clever robbers and they rob a bank with lot of brains and while fleeing they end up killing Raghu’s wife and son. Raghu survives, and the agony of losing his wife and son has a severe impact on him. He becomes all agitated, having the extreme urge to gain revenge for the loss of his loved ones. He turns from a sweet family man to a deadly killing machine and kills whatever comes in his path.   Nawazuddin is convicted for his crime and is sentenced to 20 years in jail. He spends 15 years in jail when he’s diagnosed with cancer. With the help of a rehabilitation officer (Divya Dutta), he manages to set himself free from prison. There Raghu and Laikh’s paths meet and there is a fierce face-off between them. Several twists and turns follow, good becomes bad, bad becomes good and some are neutral while it ends with an interesting and unexpected climax.
 
Positive points:
The performances of Varun Dhawan and Nawazuddin Siddique are the highlight of the film. The way Varun looks and performs his mean streak is brilliant. Playing a young husband and father in a small sequence, he still looks convincing. But it is Nawazuddin who steals the show in the film. When he provides Varun a second chance in life inspite of having the option of piling more misery on him, he clearly overshadows Varun. In a way, you can say he walks away with the film. The performance of the supporting cast is also good and they support the proceedings of the film very well.
 
Negative Points:
The violent scenes are the film is not something that everyone is going to be comfortable with. A few of them could’ve been avoided and some could’ve been toned down. The scene where Varun tries to punish Vinay Pathak by molesting his wife (Radhika Apte) looks like the reason why the film got an A certificate. This could’ve easily been avoided and a U/A certificate would’ve ensured more people could’ve watched the film.  It’s an out-and-out serious film unlike a masala film, and our audience generally likes a few light-hearted scenes in between. But they’re not going to get that.

Technical Points:
Direction by Sriram Raghavan is top-notch. The running time of approximately 120 minutes is very crisp for a revenge drama considering earlier revenge films have been traditionally long. That proves a good job at the editing table. Background music and sound effects are also very good throughout the film especially for the action scenes. No unnecessary songs in the film shows how evolved our storytelling is turning to be.   Cinematography is also effective and it’s a visually effective film.

Overall, although it’s a concept seen before, the treatment of the film is effective enough to keep you hooked to the story and there’s no dull moment.