What a tough film Badlapur is to rate. It's pretty good, but not as great as many reviewers on here have said. It shares various similarities with South Korean classics The Man from Nowhere and I Saw the Devil, but is not nearly as good or as violent as they are, even though it was advertised as such.
The film's pacing/length has positives and negatives. The whole movie lasts just 123 minutes, or slightly over two hours long. Refreshingly, all the songs combined take up less than ten minutes of the movie. There is no dancing of any kind during any of the songs, barring Huma Qureshi's stripper song. Still, the pacing is off. The first ten minutes move at a brisk pace, but the final 30 minutes before the intermission seems to take forever.
Anyways, what can be said about this movie that nobody else has mentioned, in 1,000 words or less? Well, how about the adult content? Unlike the other reviews, this one consists of all the adult content that is in the movie.
As far as the violence and adult content goes, well, it is there. It's nowhere near as gritty or abundant as expected, but it is there. To be precise, there are three murders, a child's death, two sex scenes (neither is graphic), and barely any language.
As for the violent scenes, all of them are in the trailer. The first one takes place in the opening minutes, after Nawazuddin Siddiqui and Vinay Pathak's characters kidnap Yami Gautam and her son. The son falls out of an open door, and Gautam's character is shot once, just moments after, by Siddiqui.
The two notorious hammer scenes involve Vinay Pathak's character, and his wife. The wife (Apte) gets coerced to shower by Dhawan while Pathak is away. When she exits the bathroom, she sees the bedroom covered in plastic. She is then struck one time on the side of her head with a hammer, and the result is the goriest moment of the movie. That's the first scene of the trailer, and the strike is also shown in the trailer.
The second hammer scene is the one in which Dhawan's character is seen repeatedly hammering a character, while screaming. That happens after Pathak's character arrives home, sees Dhawan's character in a chair, is told that the wife is in the bedroom, sees the horrifying scene. But, the most disturbing scene in the movie take's place before that.
After Pathak's character heads to the bedroom and sees his wife in a near vegetative state, bloodied and on the ground, he goes to her, screams her name, and cries as he kneels over to her body. She's still alive, but when he tries to call for an ambulance, Dhawan snatches the phone away from him. As he does this, Dhawan tell's Pathak about how an ambulance came to save his own wife, and how they tried everything. Then, he pushes Pathak, telling him that his wife still died.
Seconds later, as Pathak continues to cry out his wife's name, she tries to say his name. But, her body is still. Her face is still, her mouth barely moves, she struggles to breathe, and cannot see him. Dhawan tells Pathak that his own wife was also calling out his name, fifteen years back, but she couldn't see him. Then, she died.
The moment Dhawan finishes talking, Pathak's wife dies. Pathak shrieks with grief, as Dhawan pulls out his hammer. Pathak's character jumps at Dhawan, who stops him and smashes him with a hammer. Pathak falls onto the plastic-covered bed face first, as Dhawan bellows devilishly, while striking Pathak with the hammer several times, with blood splattering on his face and shirt. The scenes all take place 85-90 minutes into the film, and will likely go down, along with the rape scene, as the most memorable scenes from the movie.
The two other violent scenes involve Nawazuddin Siddiqui. Aside from the scene where he kills Yami Gautam, he stabs a prisoner in the face. Then in the final 20 minutes, he tries to strangle Dhawan, but fails to kill him. He gets his butt kicked, and is eventually knocked out.
As for the sex scenes, the first one is a rape. In it, Jhimli, a prostitute played by Huma Qureshi, gets raped by Raghu (Dhawan). The act lasts only ten seconds, but it marks the moment when his character undergoes its dark transformation.
The other scene is between Nawazuddin Siddiqui & a prostitute named Imli, but it's irrelevant to the story. The only other sensual scene is the kiss between Varun Dhawan & Divya Dutta, which was also shown in the trailer.
Performance wise, everyone is great, The best by far was Siddiqui, who always seems to shine in these roles. Qureshi did the next best job, and everyone else was terrific.
The surprise, of course, was Varun Dhawan. To me, he came off as perfect in this role. I find his usual persona annoying. Well, it lasts less than three minutes in this movie. It is all dark from there, and he shines. His transformation allows viewers to reflect on who his character was, and what he has now become. His voice betrays him at times, but he manages it well. I'll give him a B.
In summary, Badlapur is as the headline says. It is bizarre, dark, surreal, and somewhat flawed. But, Raghavan's direction is very good, and the performances are terrific. It also sends a notable message: vengeance will not alway result in satisfaction. I would go on, but I've reached the word limit.
Verdict: 7 or 8 out of 10. Worth watching, mostly for the performances.
The film's pacing/length has positives and negatives. The whole movie lasts just 123 minutes, or slightly over two hours long. Refreshingly, all the songs combined take up less than ten minutes of the movie. There is no dancing of any kind during any of the songs, barring Huma Qureshi's stripper song. Still, the pacing is off. The first ten minutes move at a brisk pace, but the final 30 minutes before the intermission seems to take forever.
Anyways, what can be said about this movie that nobody else has mentioned, in 1,000 words or less? Well, how about the adult content? Unlike the other reviews, this one consists of all the adult content that is in the movie.
As far as the violence and adult content goes, well, it is there. It's nowhere near as gritty or abundant as expected, but it is there. To be precise, there are three murders, a child's death, two sex scenes (neither is graphic), and barely any language.
As for the violent scenes, all of them are in the trailer. The first one takes place in the opening minutes, after Nawazuddin Siddiqui and Vinay Pathak's characters kidnap Yami Gautam and her son. The son falls out of an open door, and Gautam's character is shot once, just moments after, by Siddiqui.
The two notorious hammer scenes involve Vinay Pathak's character, and his wife. The wife (Apte) gets coerced to shower by Dhawan while Pathak is away. When she exits the bathroom, she sees the bedroom covered in plastic. She is then struck one time on the side of her head with a hammer, and the result is the goriest moment of the movie. That's the first scene of the trailer, and the strike is also shown in the trailer.
The second hammer scene is the one in which Dhawan's character is seen repeatedly hammering a character, while screaming. That happens after Pathak's character arrives home, sees Dhawan's character in a chair, is told that the wife is in the bedroom, sees the horrifying scene. But, the most disturbing scene in the movie take's place before that.
After Pathak's character heads to the bedroom and sees his wife in a near vegetative state, bloodied and on the ground, he goes to her, screams her name, and cries as he kneels over to her body. She's still alive, but when he tries to call for an ambulance, Dhawan snatches the phone away from him. As he does this, Dhawan tell's Pathak about how an ambulance came to save his own wife, and how they tried everything. Then, he pushes Pathak, telling him that his wife still died.
Seconds later, as Pathak continues to cry out his wife's name, she tries to say his name. But, her body is still. Her face is still, her mouth barely moves, she struggles to breathe, and cannot see him. Dhawan tells Pathak that his own wife was also calling out his name, fifteen years back, but she couldn't see him. Then, she died.
The moment Dhawan finishes talking, Pathak's wife dies. Pathak shrieks with grief, as Dhawan pulls out his hammer. Pathak's character jumps at Dhawan, who stops him and smashes him with a hammer. Pathak falls onto the plastic-covered bed face first, as Dhawan bellows devilishly, while striking Pathak with the hammer several times, with blood splattering on his face and shirt. The scenes all take place 85-90 minutes into the film, and will likely go down, along with the rape scene, as the most memorable scenes from the movie.
The two other violent scenes involve Nawazuddin Siddiqui. Aside from the scene where he kills Yami Gautam, he stabs a prisoner in the face. Then in the final 20 minutes, he tries to strangle Dhawan, but fails to kill him. He gets his butt kicked, and is eventually knocked out.
As for the sex scenes, the first one is a rape. In it, Jhimli, a prostitute played by Huma Qureshi, gets raped by Raghu (Dhawan). The act lasts only ten seconds, but it marks the moment when his character undergoes its dark transformation.
The other scene is between Nawazuddin Siddiqui & a prostitute named Imli, but it's irrelevant to the story. The only other sensual scene is the kiss between Varun Dhawan & Divya Dutta, which was also shown in the trailer.
Performance wise, everyone is great, The best by far was Siddiqui, who always seems to shine in these roles. Qureshi did the next best job, and everyone else was terrific.
The surprise, of course, was Varun Dhawan. To me, he came off as perfect in this role. I find his usual persona annoying. Well, it lasts less than three minutes in this movie. It is all dark from there, and he shines. His transformation allows viewers to reflect on who his character was, and what he has now become. His voice betrays him at times, but he manages it well. I'll give him a B.
In summary, Badlapur is as the headline says. It is bizarre, dark, surreal, and somewhat flawed. But, Raghavan's direction is very good, and the performances are terrific. It also sends a notable message: vengeance will not alway result in satisfaction. I would go on, but I've reached the word limit.
Verdict: 7 or 8 out of 10. Worth watching, mostly for the performances.
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