Director: Abhinay Dev
Artists: Irrfan, Kirti Kulhari, Arunoday Singh, Praduman Singh, Gajraj Rao, Omi Vaidya
On this particular topic of Blackmailing, quite a lot of Hindi films have already been done, but about this one, we will have to say that this is a different effort, which has to be highly appreciated. The filmmakers have tried quite hard to portray this movie in a funny manner but by injecting dark humor into it.
But the way the story has been told, it could have better and funnier. There are too many loopholes in the story and because of its linear style, you can easily predict what is going to happen next.
However, because of Irrfan Khan’s superb acting skills, your heart remains in the film.
Blackmail must definitely be praised as it has brought back the essence of dark humor into filmmaking once again and not for its treatment or story.
Everyone is blackmailing each other
The story of Blackmail revolves around Dev (Irfan Khan) and his wife Reena (Kirti Kulhari)who are living a colorless boring married life together. Dev works for a toilet paper company and because he is immersed in bore life and debts, he spends most of his time in office.
His friend in the office is Anand (Pradyuman Singh) who gives an idea to bring back the spark in their life. He suggests Dev surprise his wife with flowers and presents, one day before. But when Dev reaches home, he finds a completely different scenario. When Dev finds his wife cheating on him with her ex-boyfriend Ranjit (Arunoday Singh), instead of losing his temper, Dev starts thinking about his debts and at the same time he plans to blackmail Ranjit so that he can get some money And he can repay his house and car installments.
Ranjit is asking for money from his wife Dolly due to his insolvency, but Dolly doubts that her husband is cheating on her.
Meanwhile, Dolly’s father, who is some corporate biggie, asks Ranjit for the money that his daughter once gave him. After this Ranjit himself blackmailed Rina through an unknown e-mail so that he could return the money to his wife’s father. Reena goes to her husband (Dev) for the money demanded in Blackmail.
Dev gives that amount to his wife, but when he tells the whole story his friend Anand, Anand’s girlfriend somehow gets to know about all this and that’s where the things get even messier.
Anand’s girlfriend Prabha starts blacking and then a different game starts.
Irrfan is the soul of the movie
Regardless to say, the whole movie would have been a complete mess without Irrfan. It is astonishing that even when he doesn’t get a lot of dialogues int he movie, his expressions are more than enough to keep you glued to the screen. In the role of Dev, Irfan has given one of his best performances. Kirti Kulhari is in the role of Rina and she does not have too much screen presence, but in spite of that, her acting in the film is fantastic.
Just like what he did in Pink and Indu Sarkar, Irrfan has taken forward the same tradition of his acting talent that we had seen.
The previous films which came in Arunoday Singh’s account proved to be ineffective, but seeing this film, it seems that they have regained their edge. Divya Dutta’s role is small but effective. Apart from this, Omi Vaidya, Gajraj Rao, Praduman Singh will be seen in the supporting role in the film and all these work is fantastic.
Climax disappoints
There is no doubt that you will find many opportunities to laugh in this movie, and it is good to see that director Devi Dev has once again returned to the form in Blackmail, but the foundation on which his blackmail stands is Delhi belly. If you talk about newness, then you will not get it in the film. Abhinav Dev started off with Delhi Belly but his last two films Game and Force 2 could not work at the box office.
Blackmail shows a lot of hangover of Delhi Belly. Whether the opening credits of the film or the relationship between Irfan and his boss or his restroom humor - all we had seen in Delhi Belly. But not everything is good in the film. The film bore for twenty minutes of starting. The humor of this movie is a bit dark and it is possible that some people probably did not like it. Dev’s performance in the climax of the film will not be able to convince you anywhere.
The climax film is loose and this is missing from Parvez Shaikh’s script that why Dev is unhappy with his married life. There is no explanation for this and it looks bit weird.
Apart from that, regardless of the same formula as Delhi Belly, the movie still was fresh and it definitely is worth a watch.
