While Amitabh Bachchan and Taapsee Pannu spar with each other, it’s Amrita Singh who steals the thunder in Badla An official remake of Oriol Paulo’s Spanish film, The Invisible Guests, Badla appears to have made very little changes to the original other than switching the gender of its main players and making some shallow and simplistic references to the Mahabharata especially when it comes to the central idea of badla (revenge) and maafi (forgiveness). The film is even set abroad—in Glasgow—because of certain demands of the scene of crime, which perhaps would not have been met easily in India. Getting into the details of this would be injurious to your enjoyment of the film. So, let’s come to just the basics of the story. A top defense lawyer Badal Gupta (Amitabh Bachchan) is brought on board by a successful businesswoman Naina Sethi’s (Taapsee Pannu) lawyer Jimmy (Manav Kaul) to save her from the charges of alleged murder of her lover Arjun (Tony Luke, with charming accent intact). Allow me to be a little immodest here and say that if you are as smart as yours truly, you’d guess something amiss at the very start. Blame the source material for that but there are bits and pieces of the larger set-up that don’t quite square up, keep niggling at you, and predictably come together in an expected fashion. Badla Director: Sujoy Ghosh Cast: Amitabh Bachchan, Taapsee Pannu, Manav Kaul, Amrita Singh, Tony Luke Run time: 120.22 minutes Storyline: A top defence lawyer is brought on board to save a successful businesswoman from the charge of murdering her lover The big reveal gets painfully crummy, its central contrivance utterly implausible. In fact, the entire chain of events is hard to believe in and leaves you asking questions aplenty. Can so many people be so blind and witless? How can the most obvious be looked through? But then, how would the plot keep moving on if it were not for the plot holes and unconvincing twists and turns? Any attempt at logic, would ensure you’d be left with no film at all. And so you play along. Largely owing to the cat and mouse game between Bachchan and Pannu, their quicksilver actions, reactions and mind games they play with each other and, in turn, with the audience. Their give and take about truth, partial truth, the web of lies, the many versions of truth, about who is speaking the truth and who is not, the multiple perspectives on the same crime—all of it keeps you engaged for most part if you don’t exercise your grey cells too much. At the heart of it it’s all about perception. Is what you are seeing a 6, or actually a 9. In other words the oft heard adage--“Jo dikhta hai woh hota nahin, Aur jo hota hai woh dikhta nahin” (What you see may not be for real and what’s actually transpiring may not quite be visible). Who then, is manipulating whom? Bachchan and Pannu are in fine form. Beyond them no other actor is of any major consequence save Amrita Singh who effortlessly steals everybody’s thunder and turns out to be Badla’s big takeaway. Here’s hoping to see her more often on screen.<doc-sep>Badla movie review: Badla is essentially a two-hander filled out by Amitabh Bachchan and Taapsee Pannu, last seen together in Pink. Badla movie review: Badla is essentially a two-hander filled out by Amitabh Bachchan and Taapsee Pannu, last seen together in Pink. Badla movie cast: Amitabh Bachchan, Taapsee Pannu, Amrita Singh, Tony Luke, Manav Kaul, Denzil Washington Badla movie director: Sujoy Ghosh Badla movie rating: Three stars Two dead bodies. Two locations: one in the open, in a forest; the other a closed-room, made popular by Agatha Christie’s novels. Are the two connected? Who is the killer? The one who is arrested? Or someone else? Badla, an official remake of a Spanish murder mystery, pulls off a mostly gripping whodunit, something Bollywood rarely manages. Successful businesswoman Naina Sethi ( Pannu) is a murder suspect, with all evidence stacked against her. Her husband and child have turned their back on her, and things look bleak, till a saviour arrives in the shape of ace lawyer Badal Gupta (Bachchan), who has, of course, never lost a case. Badla is essentially a two-hander filled out by Bachchan and Pannu, last seen together in Pink. Most of the film takes place within a room, with these two main characters constantly shifting positions, both physically and morally. As each layer comes off, with Bachchan persuading Sethi to ‘tell the truth, and nothing but the truth’, we are privy to a little more information. The source remains Naina, but with each reveal, we are forced to examine the facts: who is telling the truth? What is the truth? Alert viewers will know where Badla is headed: sometimes the title of the film is the biggest spoiler. But still, for a film which relies chiefly upon its actors’ ability to vary mood and delivery in a confined space, Badla does well enough. If both Bachchan and Pannu start off a tad stilted, you can put it down to the fact that they are strangers. Bachchan’s familiar declamations, become, after some time, smart feints, and you start warming up to him, and the film. And Pannu, all nude make-up and strained face, starts settling down too. It is in this loosening up that the film becomes interesting, because obviously, things are not what they seem, and people are not who they say they are, and everyone has dark pasts and tawdry secrets. Some bits take us outside. A tryst between two clandestine lovers takes place in a snow-laden hut far out of town. The hotel where a body is found is on a picturesque hillside. But we circle back every time to those two people, in that room, one thrusting, the other parrying. And keeping us with them, despite a few flat exchanges, and some convoluted bits. Among the able supporting cast is Manav Kaul, whom I always want to see more of. The same goes for the wonderfully agile Amrita Singh. It’s a pleasure to see her in a role of some substance. I’d call this the best ‘badla’ against the stock mum-and-aunt types actresses of a certain age are forced to play: on the whole, Badla is a well-crafted suspenseful thriller, and Singh’s presence gives it heft.<doc-sep>The Invisible Guest (2017) was a critically acclaimed Spanish film which met with commercial success as well. Badla is an official remake of that and is quite faithful to the original plot. Though it does deviate on some details. Badal Gupta (Amitabh Bachchan) is a defence attorney who hasn't lost a criminal case on his career spanning 40 years. He meets a new client Naina Sethi (Taapsee Pannu), who is accused of killing her lover, Tony Luke. He begins asking her pertinent questions, exposing a web of lies and half-truths. It isn't clear what the actual truth is, each new revelation making the tale more dark and complex. Whether Naina will get justice and whether Badal will be able to rescue truth from the quicksand of deceit forms the crux of the film. The film is set in Glasgow, Scotland and it's lush locales, it's woods, lakes become a minor character in the film and are instrumental in taking the story forward. Cinematographer Avik Mukhopadhyay has brought alive the beauty of the place with his deft camera work. A large portion is shot in an apartment as well and the inside shots too are well executed. You get the feeling you're privy to two people are having an intense conversation. The film's story takes place almost in real time, what with Amitabh Bachchan grilling Taapsee for close to three hours. Deft editing by Monisha R Baldawa has made sure the pace never slackens any time. The film has got twists and turns aplenty, and hence the narrative changes every few minutes. The writing makes sure that everything we see looks plausible. The dialogue keep referring to the Gita and Mahabharata and the reference offers a clue to the film's big reveal. Discerning viewers are sure to work the mystery out. Close door mysteries, as well as psychological thrillers are two different sub genres and it's great to see them seamlessly fitting together to create a whole. As said earlier, it's mostly a two character drama and the film would have fallen flat if the histrionics of Amitabh Bachchan and Taapsee wasn't there to support it. Taapsee offers naiveté, vulnerability and steely determination in different parts of the film. She brings forth different shades as the story unfolds. She finds a perfect partner in Amitabh Bachchan, taking her cues from the thespian and building on them. Mr Bachchan again shows why he's the gold standard in acting. He is utterly convincing in his portrayal of a shrewd lawyer. Wait for his reaction to the film's denouement -- the flicker that passes through his face says it all without saying anything. Amrita Singh is the surprise package of the film. She acts as its moral compass and brings a human face to the tragedy. In short, Badla is a true-blue mystery thriller alright. Bollywood directors don't much attempt the genre and it's high time they did so...<doc-sep>Taapsee Pannu Amitabh Bachchan Pink Amrita Singh Manav Kaul The essence of a taut revenge thriller is that it urges one to consider a turn of events which though improbable would be plausible under the circumstances. It also accounts for the limitations of the law and assembles facts in such an order that one cannot possibly construct an alternative theory. This official remake of Oriol Paulo’s Contratiempo (The Invisible Guest) had the ingredients to deliver such a film. And while it manages to hold your attention and interest for the large part, the proceedings tend to occasionally get a bit too theatrical.A svelte, tailored woman Naina Sethi () is accused of murdering a man she was allegedly having an affair with. With compelling circumstantial evidence pinning her to the crime, her only hope is relying on legal shark Badal Gupta ()— an attorney with an enviable record. When Gupta interrogates Sethi for the first time, he hopes to suss out the facts by turning over the events that led up to the crime. But will Sethi reveal more than she has in her statement to the police? Or will Gupta manage to look beyond facts to devise a theory that absolves her of the alleged crime? These are questions that will keep you glued till the climax which packs a surprise twist.Pannu’s proven her ability to sink into characters with complete immersion in films such asand last year’s underrated courtroom drama Mulk. She’s compelling as Sethi — infusing her character with both, the vulnerability of a victim and the calculated cunning of a criminal. This will surely go down as one of her memorable parts — sharing the screen with Bachchan and still managing to occasionally command attention is no mean feat. Bachchan continues to cash in on his signature baritone which lends that extra punch to his punchlines. Surely, in his immense career, the veteran actor has hardly a role left to essay. He completes his sharp and deceptive legal figure with decided conviction. If only his lines could’ve been more inventive and didn’t repeatedly allude to mythological texts as a desperate attempt to make them iconic, this one would’ve seemed more realistic if not credible. But then, that’s what localising content to cater to desi tastes perhaps warrants. Rarely seen in films today,proves that she hasn’t lost her touch and is in fine form, whileis largely wasted here in this cameo as Naina’s childhood friend and legal counsel Jimmy. Malayalam actor Tony Luke as Naina’s alleged lover Arjun is the weakest link here and his heavy accent distracts one from the tense proceedings.Sujoy Ghosh, who created a legacy with the Kahaani films, probably felt the urge to keep up with the genre. And lack of original ideas hasn’t kept him from churning out thrillers (he previously produced Te3n which was a remake of Jeong Keun-seob’s Montage). Here, the material was compelling enough to translate across languages and Ghosh includes minor tweaks necessary to amplify what works and ties in the loose ends. Avik Mukhopadhyay’s tight frames captures this film’s mood and mayhem, while editor Monisha R Baldawa ensures the film maintains a decent clip.As an attorney in this film says, “It’s all in the details—they can make or break a piece of evidence.” And it is this acute attention to the various singularities presented in this film that makes it worth sitting through.<doc-sep>
Badla Movie Review: Amitabh Bachchan and Taapsee Pannu film keeps you on the edge of your seat. Picture this. A woman and man inside a hotel room are waiting for a blackmailer with a bag filled with 100,000 pounds. Suddenly, the woman is hit and loses consciousness. Next, she gets up to find her man drenched in a pool of blood with money all over him. At that very moment, someone knocks on the door. It is the police. She is arrested as suspect for murder. So, what exactly is her story? Who killed the man? Why was she in a hotel? Who blackmailed them? Who was she with in a hotel room when she claims to love only her husband and daughter? There are many questions, but only one truth. A truth that can save her from going behind the bars. Welcome to the world of Naina Sethi (Taapsee Pannu) who is accused in a murder case, and her only hope is lawyer Badal Gupta (Amitabh Bachchan). A man with a track record of winning every case in 40 years of his career. But there is a catch. He has only three hours to uncover the truth. Will he able to find the real murderer? That's the basic premise of Badla. A revenge drama that is set in a house in United Kingdom and works in flashbacks. Thriller is a genre that many Bollywood filmmakers ace, and Sujoy Ghosh is one of them. Coming from a director who gave Bollywood Kahaani (2014), Badla is high on drama, twists and turns. The two-hour revenge drama keeps you on the edge of the seat with every revelation knocking you off your feet. An official remake of Spanish thriller An Invisible Guest, Badla stays largely faithful to the original with only a minor change - swapping the gender of the main characters. Ghosh keeps the script tight and wastes no time in setting up the premise. He doesn't beat around the bush or lose time in exposition. He maintains the intensity of a taut screenplay. Keeping his thriller standing at two hours, the filmmaker makes every minute count in Badla with the audience guessing whodunnit. Sharp editing, intense music score and beautiful cinematography work wonders for the film. A strong narrative backed by good performances make Ghosh's Badla a winner. Taapsee Pannu and Amitabh Bachchan try a little hard to recreate their magic with Badla. For those who have seen the 2016 courtroom drama Pink, getting to watch them in almost the same characters isn't too pleasing. However, the actors try their best. Taapsee, otherwise a great talent, is reduced to a handful of expressions. However, Big B tries hard to keep the boat sailing with his gravitas. It is Amrita Singh who is Ghosh's surprise package in Badla. The actress, who has returned to the big screen after two years, steals the show. Getting to see her play a meaty role is a breath of fresh air. If you have already seen The Invisible Guest, there is only a little more that Ghosh is serving you with Badla. But if you are watching Badla as a standalone film without any reference to the original, it will entertain and surprise you. Badla definitely deserves a watch for its surprise factor. ALSO READ | Badla trailer out: Amitabh Bachchan and Taapsee Pannu want revenge in this thriller ALSO READ | Badla screening: Abhishek Bachchan and Shweta Nanda cheer for dad Amitabh Bachchan