Is Mahabharata a tale of revenge?- BADLA (2019) Movie Review
Hello readers and movie lovers! I’m writing this in a state of ecstasy and here’s why.
Have you ever felt like Indian Cinema, especially Bollywood has been constantly disappointing you with it’s template commercial movies? A mass hero, his entry song and build up, a heroine who’s pretty much there just for the glamour, a villain who’s purpose on earth is to fight the hero without any purpose and ultimately surrender to him; all of this with a few comedy scenes here and there that lacks humour?
And in between you’re sure to have four to five songs, three with the heroine (because that’s why she was roped in), and probably one song for other emotions (motivation, sentiment etc)!
One of template cinema’s must-have is casting a 20 year old heroine as “love interest” for a 60 year old hero. We’ve all seen it, normalised it, and unfortunately internalised it for ages now.
It’s good to see some positive change in the movie space these days. We, as audience, have made it clear that we like and support good stories, good screenplay and casting that looks real.
Above all, fresh stories and unseen perspectives is what we wish to see on screen. This hero beating villain and speaking two pages of punch dialogue saga is just torture.
Pure torture.
And it looks like movie makers are listening.
When I had turned to Cinema and Serial troll videos for entertainment, some good movies grabbed my attention. Recently I watched ‘Thappad’ and ‘Badla’ and as a cinema child, I’ve never been happier!
Before talking about anything else, let’s quickly appreciate Tapsee Pannu for her choice of movies. She gets all my respect for her choice of roles.
If choosing roles is an art, she must be Ravi Varma!
‘Thappad’ is a critically acclaimed, popular feminist movie that’s grabbed attention even from the south. It was an eye opener for millions of Indian women who’ve been taught to live with toxicity to such an extent that we don’t really know what’s normal and what’s toxic!
‘Badla’ (2019) on the other hand is a crime-thriller movie. Another movie with the Tapsee- Amitabh combo after ‘Pink’. Amitabh has played a lawyer here as well.
Indian audience are now watching a movie with a female protagonist, with Bollywood’s biggest “male” star as her supporting actor!
This movie, in my eyes, is already a winner.
*Spoiler alert*
Naina Sethi (Tapsee Pannu) is a successful businesswoman, expanding into the global market. I’d like to give due credits here to the movie makers for not giving us additional details like her net worth, her business opponents or any other unnecessary information. That would’ve been an information bomb.
Like any other highly successful business tycoon, Naina is busy flying across different countries and finds it difficult to catch up with her personal life. Her family comprises of her husband and a female toddler kid and life; both on personal and professional fronts is near perfect for Naina.
Naina is in an extramarital affair with Photographer Arjun, who’s also married to a Bank employee called Rachel. Both of them, are cheating on their partners.
On one fateful day, when Naina is supposed to fly back to her home from Paris, she makes a little “bird’s stay” nestling with her lover in a secret cottage in Aviemore.
Naina gets a call from her husband when she’s about to leave for the airport, and while she’s on the call, her husband hears the clicking sound of a lighter.
When you realise that a simple “lighter” would play a role in a murder mystery, you know whom to call genius!
Naina 's husband scolds her for continuing her smoking habits. She has a feeling of unrest after the call. Guilt takes a wave over her.
Naina and Arjun hop into the car, and drive their way to the airport. Both of them are running late. Arjun asks Naina to hurry up. Arjun also suggests a ‘short cut’ route to reach the airport faster.
On the way, Naina suggests Arjun that they break up. Arjun isn’t agreeing right away. Naina is speeding, the argument is heating up. A deer comes in the way. A car is speeding in the opposite direction.
A thud. A clash. Silence.
The deer sped away into the forest. Naina and Arjun are safe. But the opposite car is still stuck into a tree trunk by the road.
The boy in the car is dead.
Dead.
Now is that an accident because a deer came in the way, or a murder for Naina was speeding blindly.
Whatever it is, they can’t report this to the police because they don’t want to be seen together. Right?
~few months later..
Naina is arrested by the Police for the murder of Arjun Joseph. She was spotted beside Arjun’s dead body in a room, booked in Glen Mohr Hotel.
Naina is out in bail but she still is the prime suspect. Naina has to prove her innocence and unfortunately, we have just three hours to solve this haphazard case!
And who better to do that than our Amitabh ji? ;)
My Review:
The movie keeps you engaged for the entire running time of 1h 58m.
Being a crime-thriller lover and thanks to the pause-replay-forward feature of Netflix, I took more than two and half hours to finish watching this movie. This explains the details in every scene, you have to replay back and forth to really be informed.
This is the key attribute to any good crime-thriller movie. The details. The facts.
Another interesting fact is that the entire movie starts, ends and travels within the four walls of Naina’s home. Start to end, the main characters (Naina and Badal Gupta) are in the same room, with the same clothes. Of course, we have flashback narrations that has to be shot outdoors, but the narration takes place in her house. The story is going in so many different directions, but the womb to this story is just a desk, two chairs, and two intelligent people playing mind games at each other.
Special mention to Amrita Singh who plays Sunny’s mother. There’s a scene where she has a face-off with Naina at a business event. I haven’t seen this actress in any movie before but I can say with full confidence that this scene is one of her finest acting performances.
Gotta appreciate the dialogue writer here. On point!
Tony Luke, who plays Arjun (Naina’s lover) is also a new face to me. Crush-at-first sight, quiet easily. He is dusky, fit and his facial features makes him fit to be a Vogue model (maybe he already is)!
Dialogues deserve the Oscars. If you can quickly go to Google and search ‘Badla movie quotes’ you’ll find plenty! It’s because almost each and every line spoken deems fit to be a quote. Remember what I said about “mind games”?
Gotta talk about the cons as well. If Cinema is your happy-go-lucky place to rewind, please refrain from this one. It might be a little too much information to process, especially if you’re someone like me, who wants to know every little detail. In all honesty, the climax “prosthetics” scene was too much for me itself!
Tapsee has become such a refined actress. She doesn’t do much, but it still looks good. The roles she choose are realistic and that enables her to play her roles effortlessly.
Her off-shoulder olive sweater and messy bun is what I want to look like when I’m lounging. Effortlessly stylish. Minimalistic, effortless fashion is what I live for!
Amitabh Bachchan ate and left no crumbs. That’s all I can say about this great actor. Our South Indian male lead actors got so much to learn from him. As far as I know, the only time Rajnikanth played a supporting role was in ‘Chandramukhi’ (2005). Vijay, acted in a so-called women centric movie called ‘Bigil’ (2019).
We South Indians are ready to still watch Rajini as the hero. We are convinced that he can still fight multiple villains and fly in the air. We are convinced if we watch him dance with Amy Jackson. This is exactly the situation in Bollywood as well. Amitabh could do the same thing. But he instead chooses meaningful roles that suit his age and most importantly, he puts stardom behind and acting first! Hats off, Amitabh sir.
Let’s get back to the titular question. Is Mahabharata a tale of revenge? Watch ‘Badla’ to find out.
Until then,
Xoxo
Most favourite quote from the film:
“ Badla lena har baar sahi nahi hota, lekin maaf kar dena bhi har baar sahi nahi hota”
“Revenge is not always the answer. Forgiving is not always an option too.”
.
.
.
…
