Cast- Irrfan, Kirti Kulhari, Divya Dutta, Arunoday Singh, Omi Vaidya
Director- Abhinay Deo
Writers- Parveez Shaikh, Pradhuman Singh Mall
Is a black comedy about a blackmail saga that’s so insipid and bland that I would actually remember today’s day as a black Friday.
Dev Kaushal (Irfan) is coping up with a boring middle class life, boring sales job, lots of financial pressures and a lacklustre marriage with Reena(Kriti).He discovers that she’s having an affair with Ranjeet(Arunoday Singh)and decides to get even by blackmailing him. Ranjeet is a good for nothing married to Dolly(Divya Dutta)a corporator’s daughter. Ranjeet, with no means to keep up with the blackmailer’s demand in turn starts blackmailing his girlfriend Reena.
And this is just the beginning, in a series of blackmails. Anyone who comes to know about the blackmail begins to blackmail and the blackmailed in turn blackmails someone else to arrange the finance. In this whole rigmarole, it’s the audience who get blackmailed. Watch or else you wouldn’t get to know how the chain of fiascos end.
There was absolutely no zing to the whole narrative as was in the case of Delhi Belly. Of course , that one had a novelty value with its toilet humour and dark comedy seven years back. Blackmail has its own novelty value with quite some different kind of toilet humour which was the only thing interesting in the mundane life of Dev(pun intended ). But that was the only thing humorous about the movie. I found absolutely no other opportunity to laugh otherwise.
The screenplay was a big culprit that offered no highs ,no lows and sadly no humour, not even giggles. Just a never ending series of jumbled up blackmails that seemed to go on like an endless dark tunnel.
I am so numbed by the experience that I need some sincere efforts to nit-pick the good points of the movie.
Irfan tried his level best with his sincere performance of a lethargic but good at heart , helpless blackmailer.
Kriti was good . She brought certain vulnerability to her character in spite of being an infidel wife.
Arunoday, Divya were good too.
But performances are only as good as the story they are in. These hapless actors unintentionally were party to a crime that belonged to the movie maker solely.
Omi Vaidya played Dev ‘s boss and bored us to death with his( zillionth time )accented character.
In fact that whole side track around him should have been blown away with a canon had I been the editor and the movie would have been 30 min lesser of the torture it was.
Speaking of music, “sataasat” with its quirky lyrics and music by Amit Trivedi was the sole flag bearer of what you could call humour in this movie.
Bewafa Beauty , by the same duo , featuring a cameo by Urmila was hummable.
The rest of the movie was nothing but torture. I would have to take back my words in my earlier review in the day that Blackmail could be a better option this weekend.
I think Missing, in spite of all its misgivings , was better than this one.
Some days are just bad.
Score 4 on 10.