Film: Blackmail

Date: April 06.04.2018

Producer: T series & RD Productions

Director: Abhinay Deo

Writer: Parveez Sheikh/ Screenplay, Pradhuman Singh Mall/ Dialogues

Cast: Irrfan Khan, Kirti Kulhari, Divya Dutta, Arunoday Singh, Omi Vaidya

Dev/ Irrfan Khan on the surface appears a normal man at a normal job of a sales executive with a toilet brand paper. He leaves his home at the allotted time and spends 12 hours by the clock at his work station. He returns home late every night, microwaves his dinner and falls asleep.

As the story progresses you discover that Dev is not as uncomplicated as he seems. He has strange toilet and bedroom habits and is forever lost in his thoughts. He is visibly unhappy and on the advice of his colleague Dev decides to add spice to his life and surprise his wife but is in for a big surprise himself!

The positives of the film are the plot, treatment, humor, music and refreshing writing. This is the first time a subject like blackmail is treated as a black comedy and the result is both hilarious and disturbing.

The negatives are the slow pace and the lose editing. All the characters are weird and self-centered including Kirti Kulhari’s old and ailing parents.  We all know that the universe is made up of strange characters and we meet the oddest bunch – Kirti Kulhari, Arunodaya Singh, Divya Dutta, Omi Vaidya in Blackmail.

The weirdest of them all is the middle age/middle class Irrfan Khan dragging feet in a loveless marriage and a mundane job only so that he can pay off his EMI loans.

In the 2 hour 29 minute film, you travel a web of lies, deceit, ambition and extreme greed. As the complex characters grope with self-created calamities, you are a witness to their shallow world devoid of emotional intimacy and self-worth.

The supporting cast is spectacular and Irrfan Khan as always embraces his character and makes him relatable. The real hero of the film is director Abhinay Deo who repeatedly thinks out of the box be it the cult Delhi Belly 2011  or the sensational  TV series 24. This time Deo exposes  middle-class aspirations in a metropolis where everyone is in the rat race for money!

Blackmail is filled with laughter but like all bitter truths of life it is dark and disturbing.

I rate Blackmail with 3.5 stars.

Bhawana Somaaya/ @bhawanasomaaya

Padman was due for release and Akshay Kumar was in the news, while many were looking forward to the taboo subject on the big screen there were many who revealed that they would not be comfortable watching the subject with the family in the theatres. Many friends asked me why Akshay Kumar chose the subjects he did.

Starting as an action hero and peaking as a Khiladi star Akshay Kumar has consciously transformed his image into a socially conscious actor thereby choosing films as a weapon to make a difference. What’s important is that given his stardom all these films have done well at the box-office and got him under the social spotlight.

@bhawanasomaaya

Two subjects I hate writing a column are the Republic Day and the Independence Day, I just hate to recount all the patriotic moments in our cinema because I truly believe patriotism is in my heart and not for display but a newspaper has its demands and I was asked to write something close to the topic.

I suggested to my editor that I will present it from a fresh perspective and Unadkat sporting as always agreed. There are kinds and kinds of columnists, those who write in close coordination with the editor and those who like to surprise him. Having been in the business for too many decades I prefer to be in harmony with my editor, I like to tell him what I am writing rather and he appreciates my interaction.

For the special issue, I looked at Hindi cinema over the years and how much we had progressed since independence.

@bhawanasomaaya

Sanjay Leela Bhansali was in the news and every powerful body in the country seemed to have made up their mind to not allow the director to release his labor of love. The editor was not willing to take the risk and I assured that I will not be responsible. The point is how does one raise issues close to your head and heart without making reference to the culprits? The point also is that are you really helping/ harming those you stick your neck out for?  There are no answers because every problem is a new challenge and one has to ride the terrain and seek solutions.

To me the issue was not whether the film is finally going to be titled Padmavati or Padmavat but what the filmmaker Sanjay Leela Bhansali and his cast Deepika Padukone and Ranveer Singh were going through. Were they getting wounded or deriving strength in their silence?

@bhawanasomaaya

Anushka Sharma and Virat Kohli had got married and everybody was happy, even strangers not connected to the couple were celebrating. I wondered why and analyzed the same in the column. After a long time a celebrity marriage was clean and without cobwebs, both were successful in their fields and looked forward to spending the rest of their lives together. For the younger generation, Anushka and Virat are a role model.

The media heralded Anushka for not bothering about the repercussions of this big step on her career. She was in love and wanted to be with her man. It was wonderful to watch Anushka in her chooda seated beside Virat Kohli at Prime Minister Narendra Modi and weeks after her marriage at YRF Studio getting ready for her film shooting.

A month later, her film got released and captain of cricket team went to play another game in another city.

@bhawanasomaaya

Tiger Shroff is unstoppable

 Film: Baaghi 2

Date: 30 March

Director: Ahmed Khan

Producer: Nadiadwala & Grandsons

Cast: Tiger Shroff, Disha Patani, Prateik Babbar, Manoj Bajpayee, Randeep Hooda, Deepak Dobriyal

Ratings: 2.5 stars

The trailers of Baaghi 2 prepare you for an out and out action so one is surprised that the writer has actually bothered to weave a story so what if it is a remake of Telegu hit Kashanm, 2016.

One morning Neha/Disha Patani is attacked by masked men as she waits to drop her child/ Ria to school. After a serious trauma disorder and two months in the hospital, Neha discovers that her daughter is still missing and the police has shut the case due to lack of evidence.

With no one to support her Neha contacts old boyfriend Ronny/ Tiger Shroff now serving as an army officer for help.

The first half of the film concentrates on the romance between the lead pair and a feeble attempt to create intrigue. The second half is about solving the mystery and punishing the villains, in short a lot of action!

The demerits of the film are the illogical plot, the exaggerated situations and meaningless violence. There is not a single weapon besides pistol, gun and knives that are spared and this includes sticks, ropes, pipes, drums, barrels, gas, smoke, fire, glass, bombs, chairs, tables, everything…

And this occurs every five minutes at any occasion/wedding or police encounter and every location/ hotel, bars, garage, dungeon, forest, helicopter, farmhouse, hospital, lockup, dark alleys and buzzing streets.

It is a torture to constantly watch vehicles blown to flames and goons beaten up in bloodbath because the question always is how much is too much?

The merits of the film are the scale and the production and the variety of skillfully performed action sequences and more than that the effort to present all the actors in refreshing roles.

Manoj Bajpayee as DIG officer, Randeep Hooda as LSD and Prateik Babbar as Sunny do their best, Deepak Dobrial for a change is in a serious mood and Disha Patani tries hard to be taken seriously.

Tiger Shroff sets new standards for action. He hangs from a helicopter, jumps from the rocks, flies into the sky and chases like a leopard and most important packages passion in his emotive scenes.

If you like daredevil action and Tiger Shroff then Baaghi 2 is for you, if not it is better to stay at home.

I rate Baaghi 2 with 2.5 stars.

@bhawanasomaaya

Motley is once again paying a tribute to writer Ismat Chugtai in their third tribute Aapa Ke Naam
III titled Aurat Aurat Aurat. Directed once again by Naseeruddin Shah it contains segments from
Ismat aapa;s autobiography, and the essays, Ek Shahar ki Khaatir, Aadhi Aurat Aadha Khwaab
and Soney ke Anda.

Shah believes that the charges of obscenity leveled at Ismat aapa were a smokescreen for what
actually riled the orthodoxy of that time. Because she insisted on female education, dismissed
superstition was irreverent towards tradition, showed contempt for misogyny and asserted her
identity as a human being, the self-appointed custodians of religion attempted in vain to
condemn and thus silence her.
But Ismat Aapa was far from being tamed, on the contrary, she continued on her merry way all
her life, enraging the greybeards with her lacerating observations of life around her. Aurat Aurat
Aurat is an all-female cast and will present pieces with multiple characters on stage, unlike the
previous versions which presented monologues.