Film Review- Blackmail is Funny Gone Banal

April 20, 2018 Film Review 0 Comments

What: Film Review

Movie: Blackmail

Starring: Irrfan Khan, Arunoday Singh, Divya Dutta and Kirti Kulhari

Genre: Comedy- Drama

Director: Abhinay Deo

I went to watch Delhi Belly with Zero expectations and came out laughing, with great memories of the film. This, however, was not the case with blackmail.

Not to say that Blackmail is not entertaining. It is entertaining. I went to watch this with great expectations, and came back neither disappointed but felt there was something that was amiss. What was that something? Let's figure it without, without writing the film down.

The movie has many assets. Starting from the biggest- The real Good khan- Irrfan Khan [his presence mere makes the film/project worth its while], premises of a dark humor meets suspense thriller of a genre, an interesting storyline, interesting characters, minimal song, a pretty looking Kirti Kulhari, A goofy [so apt] Arunoday Singh etc etc....

The movie has fewer flaws like a dragged storyline, some lackadaisical characters [played by OMI Vaidya who seem to refuse coming out of his Chatur Idiot mode and Dialogue Writer Pradyuman Singh playing the office colleague]. 

The story is simple- A man in a loveless marriage find his wife cheating on him. He dreams of confronting them but ends up blackmailing [and getting blackmailed too] his wife's Moosey boyfriend, married to an alcoholic yet the rich daughter of the local corporater, all in a Pacman inspired "who blackmails whom" chase.

Irrfan's Dev is a dull guy who sits till late hours in the night, playing Pacman on his computer, masturbating with pictures of his colleague's wife [gross], steals flowers from the graveyard, and overall leads a very mundane life until he finds this gym trainer in his wife's bed. Unfortunately, you do not feel very sorry for this guy who thinks one of the best ways to take revenge from his boss, is to use boss' unassuming wife's picture for his nocturnal ebony.

So it is ok for him to take pictures of other men's wife to his hormonal carnage but so difficult to accept the possibility of his wife sleeping with her boyfriend, being in a marriage where the entire relation revolves around recharging a set-top box. Phew!

There are few other tackiness in this story to deal with. One of them is the unnecessary, un-sexy and absolute pointless item number- Bewafa Beauty featuring Urmila Matondkar. What a waste. The whole sequence was as badly planted as the actress' makeup. Between her and the shitty Omi vaidya performance, I choose- the goofy, low IQ Ranjit of Arunoday Singh who was a delight to watch. Not being the actor's fan, I still liked his act in "this" film. 

There are a lot of real and funny anecdotes used in the movie. Few included- the never-ending calls on IVR, weird bosses with their goofy pep talks, the disguise as a blind gun seller, selling guns using Amitabh Bachchan's dialogue, the multi-purpose detective and the abundant pressure of never-ending EMIs.  The film would be relatable to various people and will entice the same crowd as the "Sonu ke Titu ki Sweety" but with a middle-class setup. 

The film may get dull on some occasions but manages to keep some thrill alive including the blackmail mesh up and the twists in the tales. Overall, it is a good watch. Largely because it is an Irrfan Khan film with an interesting storyline. Go watch it!

Numerounity Rating: 4/5 [cause it is an Irrfan Khan Film and I admire the actor, go, judge]

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