Badlapur — a story of revenge & of change
Based on the novel ‘Death’s Dark Abyss’ by Massimo Carlotto, ‘Badlapur’ owes much to the man who came up with a story that compels you to reflect upon the choices made by the principal characters of the film and ask yourself some extremely tough moral questions.
Badla in Hindi means revenge while badlav means change and this film revolves around these two major emotions or rather decisions.
The film follows Raghu (Varun Dhawan), an ad man, whose life is shattered in a single moment when his wife and child become the victims of two thieves, Liak (Nawazuddin Siddiqui) and Harman (Vinay Pathak). Raghu burns with anger at this injustice & craves revenge. This transformation of Raghu from a regular family guy to a man obsessed with his loss and more importantly with the desire to avenge his family is what forms the remaining story which pans out over 15 years leading to a climax that is beautiful and thought provoking making one wonder who is the villain after all.
The characters of the film, specially the two principal characters of Raghu and Liak, are the ultimate winners. They both have reasons for their actions but what makes this film different from others of its genre is the fact that these same reasons seem compelling one instant and superfluous the other. Liak is a smalltime crook who commits a heinous murder at the spur of a moment but can Raghu’s loss & pain be enough reasons for his exceedingly calculated actions?
‘Badlapur’ is a must watch for its story and for its actors, specially Nawazuddin Siddique who spins magic as Liak, the crook you desperately want to hate but just cannot bring yourself to do so completely. Liak is a complex character & Nawaz has played him to the hilt, milking every emotion he felt Liak could receive from the audience. Indeed he plays the audience just like Liak plays his victims. The ensemble cast does its job well specially Radhika Apte as Harman’s wife.
The film works at other levels too — of music, dialogues and even the dark and brooding cinematography. Kudos to director Sriram Raghavan for helming a ship not in any danger of sinking.
Watch Badlapur to marvel at a brilliant story told in a compelling enough way for the film to linger on your mind long after the lights are back on.
Direction — Sriram Raghavan
Starring — Varun Dhawan, Nawazuddin Siddique, Divya Dutta, Radhika Apte, Vinay Pathak, Huma Qureshi
Originally penned in 2015 with edits in 2021.
