Produced by: Red Chillies Entertainment, Azure Entertainment
Directed by: Sujay Ghosh
Story by: Oriol Paulo
Screenplay by: Sujay Ghosh, Raj Vasant
Star cast : Amitabh Bachchan, Taapsee Pannu, Amrita Singh, Tony Luke
FILMFARE ME STARS:
(3/5)
The Pink co-stars are back together, this time in Sujoy Ghosh’s whodunit drama, Badla, a remake of the Spanish thriller The Invisible Guest. Sujay Ghosh’s touch of Mahabharata made the movie gripping. The references of Lord Krishna, Arjun, Draupadi, Dhritarashtra, and Sanjay are made in the course of the film’s central encounter between a retired advocate, Badal Gupta played by Amitabh Bachchan, known for not losing a single case in his 40-year-old long career and out-on-bail murder suspect, Naina Sethi played effortlessly by Taapsee Pannu, a young successful businesswoman who believes that someone has plotted this crime to trap her.
Thrillers are best kept under the wraps; hence, I will not unfold the layers but I will let you enjoy the movie. However, here are the five things to watch out for…
Sujay Ghosh
Badla is directed by non-other than Sujay Ghosh, who is a leading light among thriller makers in Bollywood. His Kahaani (2012) starring Vidya Balan kept all of us on our toes and he raised his own bar with Kahaani 2 (2016). The most nail-biting, gripping thriller of the same year 2016 was produced by this maestro called Te3n. With such a strong background of thrillers, you can surely expect another masterpiece. So, Sujay Ghosh can be your one of the reasons to go and watch Badla in theatres.
Amitabh Bachchan and Taapsee Pannu
We saw this duo last in Pink, which was a courtroom drama in which Mr. Bachchan played a bipolar lawyer and in this murder mystery again the legendary actor is seen as a lawyer with similar grit but that doesn’t make both the films similar. The only common factor between the two films is the brilliant performances from both the actors. We expect nothing but the best from Mr. Bachchan and he always lives up to our expectations. But what’s worth mentioning is Taapsee Pannu, who played the suspect so well that she had to share her maximum screen space with Mr. Bachchan and yet, she made her mark.
Strong star cast
Not just Mr. Bachchan and Taapsee but also the rest of the star cast is strong and true to their characters. Amrita Singh has a crucial role in the film. She played the role of a distraught mother and yet she is not over the top, Bollywood’s melodramatic mother. Another actor worth mentioning is the handsome model-turned-Malayalam film actor Tony Luke. Badla marked his Bollywood debut and he surprised us with his impressive performance.
The Plot
The plot is a little simple, the movie’s premise revolves around a young woman – who’s accused of murdering her lover – describing, in all honesty, the recent turn of events that landed her in trouble to her defense attorney, a man who’s been recommended by her own lawyer, in a bid to get her out of trouble.
Though the film is a remake of a successful Spanish film The Invisible Guest, many of us haven’t seen the original film and that makes this plot quite interesting. This film has so many layers, so many truths and lies that I’m sure you will love this nail-biting experience.
Strong Screenplay, mind-blowing Dialogues, and no diversion policy
The film’s editor Monisha R Baldawa have kept this film on the edge. It is a fast-paced, sharply edited film. The screenplay and dialogues by Raj Vasant and Sujay Ghosh are a hoot. Especially all the Mahabharata references Badal Gupta uses. And big applauds to the makers for not keeping any songs as in thriller films they play the mood-killers. So, the well-kept background score made the movie perfect.