Sanket’s review: Badlapur is gripping and intrusive drama

Badlapur Cast: Varun Dhawan, Yami gautam, Nawazuddin Siddiquie, Huma Qureshi

Director: Sriram Raghvan

Length: 2hrs and 15 minutes

Possibly Raghvan’s best work, “Badlapur” is an accomplished venture that starts off on a terrific note and ends with one. The film in between too hook you up, though not all is correct about the film.

The film is more about the two characters – the Hero and the villain rather than the inner turmoil of the hero. The film doesn’t take time to build the plot and goes with the kill from word go. Raghvan known to infuse enough drama and suspense in the plot, although that disappeared in his previous film “Agent Vinod, does the same here but perhaps with little more finesse. The plot moves along with twists and turns and the characters are nicely etched giving the raw deal of each player. The writing is extremely staunch and the film has brisk pace.

Although the flashback portions don’t really bring enough difference to the film’s screenplay and resulting in unexploited emotions, yet the writers win brownies for giving zany dimension to Nawazuddin’s character that gets to mouth some crackling dialogues. Or even Varun’s character that shows high levels of alterations as and when the story progresses. The film even though a revenge drama gives a nice angle to it by playing with the characters and keeping the suspense and thrill intact throughout.

But as mentioned that film does have some problems- there are several attempts to cut a nice emotional piece with flashbacks which hardly works and also pace at couple of places goes for toss.

The film enjoys sharp background score and the “jee Karda” in the background gives Goosebumps. And even “jeena jeena” is quite a nice song that gets its place at the right time. The film adequately benefits from Raghvan’s excellent execution who manages to keep the momentum high even when there’s silence. His wit blossoms in scenes where he uses subtle comical undertones especially reserved for Nawaaz in the scenes where Nawaaz displays childish flamboyance to his co-criminal in jail or be it the mouse-and-cat play in a movie theatre.

Varun Dhawan uses silence and aggression abundantly and never losing a mark. His character has too many angle – he is menacing, he is lovable, he is heroic, he is helpless and he is funny too, and Dhawan packs all into a performance that shows of what calibre he is. Nawaaz, easily in his career’s most juicy role enjoys hilarious dialogues and also has a character that has arc and is not your typical antagonist. The dependable Huma Qureshi does well whereas Vinay Pathak hardly has much to do. Rest all are fine in the bit roles.

BADLAPUR is gripping and intrusive drama that’s worth the price of a ticket. The film could’ve managed its setbacks and could’ve been outstanding, yet for whatever it is, it is still a must-watch. The climax is a major highpoint because it’s not really conventional and yet its entirely convincing which in itself leaves you on a good note.

Rating – 3.5/5

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11 Comments
  1. sputnik 9 years ago

    Thanks for the review @sanket-porwal

    So far all reviews seem positive. Will try to check it out tonight and comment.

    • Baba 9 years ago

      there are quite a few negative ones too but they are not posted here bcos ranbir is not considered still a competetion to the khans

  2. cr7 9 years ago

    Liked it a lot .I would give Ek hasina thi a slight edge over it though .Agree about the start,end and flashbacks part. Varun was excellent .He surprised me .Didn’t think much of him as an actor his first 3 movies .Nawaz was too good as usual .He got a author backed role and did total justice to it .

  3. Baba 9 years ago

    Saw Badlapur. Unlike what the title suggests the film is not a revenge film. its a journey of two characters. its a pretentious film and sluggish from start to end. The poster says “dont miss the beginning” when there is nothng special in it. Nawaz has the best role and he has acted well. varun dhawan is a total miscast and is completely owned by nawaz. The movie is filled with loopholes but i dont care to list all of them. I dont know why Nawaz doesnt leave the car in the beginning and frames his own arrest. what did he gain from it? its a nonsensical movie with no script. first time saw yami gautam on big screen and she is really beatiful even without makeup . she had such a small role but outshone varun in all the scenes.

    • sputnik 9 years ago

      I wouldn’t call the film pretentious but agree with most of what you say.

      Yes its a journey of two characters and it was sluggish. The movie was too long at 2 hr 13 min. The movie did not have enough meat in it. It could have been a 90 min movie at max.

      “The poster says “dont miss the beginning” when there is nothng special in it.”

      The first scene was good but they should not have shown it in full so early on. Because of that there was no element of suspense or surprise later on. A non linear screenplay would have made the movie more interesting.

      “Nawaz has the best role and he has acted well.”

      Agree

      “Varun dhawan is a total miscast and is completely owned by nawaz.”

      Yeah he was miscast. I think the role needed a better actor to bring out the angst.

      “The movie is filled with loopholes but i dont care to list all of them.”

      Sriram’s movies always have a few loopholes.

      “I dont know why Nawaz doesnt leave the car in the beginning and frames his own arrest.”

      It looked like something he would do in pressure as the cops are approaching. May be he thought that he will be able to show himself as just a driver or escape out of jail soon.

      “first time saw yami gautam on big screen and she is really beatiful even without makeup.”

      Yeah Yami Gautam did look very pretty.

      • Baba 9 years ago

        if that was the plan of nawaz, then its the most silly plan i have ever heard. why would you want to frame your arrest? what is more risky? not gettign caught in the car where a murder is committed or getting caught in it? and this incident was most pivotal to the life of nawaz. he spends another 15 years in jail.

        what was the use of that female detective? she suddenly disappeared in second half. vinay pathaks wife is shown to willingly allow anything varun wants her to do. no one in real life would do it. the problem between vinay an dvarun was none of her business.

        nawaz almost walked away with the movie. varun has been fooled big time. why did he sign this film? nawaz has almsot become a hero by the end and varun comes across as a confused person and he is unable to show his emotions throughout.

        the movie looks pretentious because there was no need to name the film badlapur. there are scenes where varun is dancing to some music imaginign his wife. clearly varun was not at all a mature character which some of the scenes were trying to show him to be.he was confused from beginning to end. he would speak politely and out of blue start hitting ppl (once in the jail to nawaz and once in the house of vinay) as if asked by the director ok now you have to hit.

        • sputnik 9 years ago

          If Nawaz had also run away with Vinay then the police would have chased both of them and their robbery would have gone waste. So asking one of them to run away with the money and telling him that he will meet later wasn’t a bad idea. But the problem was that Nawaz got caught in the car with a dead body. May be the scene could have been written better.

          Nawaz’s character is not that of some super smart thief. He does some things which fail like both his attempts to escape from jail.

          “what was the use of that female detective? she suddenly disappeared in second half.”

          The female detective was there only for a couple of scenes. I think she was only there for the purpose of leading Varun to Huma. The cops not being able to find out that Nawaz has a girlfriend is a stretch when they are investigating a 5 Cr robbery and murder of a woman and a kid.

          “vinay pathaks wife is shown to willingly allow anything varun wants her to do. no one in real life would do it. the problem between vinay and varun was none of her business.”

          She is shown to be despising her husband after she finds out he was involved in Yami and her kid’s deaths. But she is also shown to be in love with her husband and defending him that he is not capable of killing anyone. In order to save him from getting arrested she is shown to be willing to even sleep with Varun. One can’t generalize. There may be some like her who will go to any lengths to save their husband.

          “nawaz almost walked away with the movie. varun has been fooled big time. why did he sign this film? nawaz has almsot become a hero by the end and varun comes across as a confused person and he is unable to show his emotions throughout.”

          Almost same thing happened with Ek Villain where Riteish walked away with the movie. The actor playing the negative role always has a chance to walk away with the movie whenever he has a good role.

          “the movie looks pretentious because there was no need to name the film badlapur.”

          Yeah and the town being Badlapur was kind of cheesy.

          “he would speak politely and out of blue start hitting ppl (once in the jail to nawaz and once in the house of vinay)”

          I knew he would thrash Nawaz when he wanted to speak to him in jail. Speaking politely with the cops initially was fine in that scene.

          I think his character was like that of a psycho or at least he becomes one once he loses his wife and kid. Radhika’s character and Nawaz’s character both say that he is Paagal. I don’t think his role was bad. I think the role needed a better actor. As you said Varun was unable to show his emotions in many scenes. He looked too young or raw.

          • Baba 9 years ago

            they both could have jumped off the moving car. the police did not know their faces. they would have found just the car with the dead body. nawaz and vinay had more chances to be safe with both jumping off together and let the car crash on its own.

            i think in EV ritesh did better but sid was not overshadowed like this. he had his moments. badlapur needed atlest few scenes where varun could dominate nawaz. check this

            https://youtube.com/watch?v=eyfF5ypnWpY

            the huma varun sex scene against the wall is copied from raw justice which was far more explicit

          • Baba 9 years ago

            I loved the dilague “main tujhe marne nahi doonga, lekin main tujhe roz maarunga” from EV

  4. Baba 9 years ago

    the only thing better in badlapur compared to ev is hero’s wife . yami gautam is a good actor and subtle. shardha kapoor was loud and retarded in ev

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