Don’t you miss BAdla. It is a movie worth watching. Just because, they don’t always make them like this. It is a twist and turn type of story with a rollercoaster ride. A story of possibilities and suggestive reality. A story of revenge and arrogance. A story of success and failure. It works on multi-dimensions. Sujoy Gosh does a marvellous job with Badla. It is supposed to be an official remake of the Spanish film The Invisible Guest. As I. like most of the audience has not seen it, it is a fresh perspective for me.
For a change, the twist and turns work. You are kept engaged.
Amitabh Bachchan plays his role to almost perfection, though some times it feels that he is not being challenged enough with such characters. Taapsee Pannu more than holds her ground before the mighty AB. We watching Amitabh Bachchan defending Taapsee Pannu once again after PINK. And Taapsee once again comes out stronger. In Badla, she demonstrates a fine shift in her character and its completely believable.
The Indianisation dose of references to Mahabharata seems overindulgence in the movie. Some of the places, due to the constant discussion between accused ( Taapsee) and her Lawyer ( Amitabh Bachchan), it feels as if the pace slackening. However, the director in the very next moment places another twist in the tale and you are back with him at the location.
Amrita Singh as the mother of Arjun is rock solid in her character.
The story is straightforward. Naina (Taapsee Pannu) is accused of murdering Arjun (Tony Luke). Her lawyer Jimmy (Manav Kaul) hires the senior advocate Badal Gupta (Amitabh Bachchan) to help crack the case and defend Naina. Her confessions to Badal and Badal’s way of questioning or explaining possibilities add excitement to this murder mystery. Here, someone is not telling the truth, and for someone, that truth is all they want.
Badal Gupta is a lawyer who has announced his retirement. He has never lost a case. And Nana’s case is his last one. He is not going to allow it to soil his excellent record.
It’s about Perception.
Everything does not need logic. Cinematic liberties allow for the belief and rationale to be blurred. So, even in Badla, there are instances of these missing details and incomplete explanation. The pace of narration is so good that it does not allow such niggles to stay for long. It interestingly keeps battling with different emerging truths and the resultant shift in perception.
Now, though by the time film ends, the audience has more or less got the plot. And in trying to outdo the audience guess, the director falters with an ending that hangs like a bad after taste. Its murder of suspense. It’s brutally tripping with disbelief. And that’s what is wrong with the movie.
The predictability of the screenplay dampens the thrills occasionally. The climactic twist asks you for that moment to suspend your disbelief. It is tough to digest.
And still, after that, I recommend you to watch.
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