Reviews & Ratings for
Blackmail (2018)

Film has Irrfan in the lead and that is fine enough for somebody to decide whether he is going to watch or not! Director Abhinay Deo is back in his favorite genre - Dark Comedy.

Well, comedy is something which one enjoys loudly while seeing it. One laughs out loud or cheers mainly in comic scenes. But here, not a single person in the hall was laughing. Actually, I was the only one who laughed at some points in the film. So, I would not term this film a Dark Comedy, but a Dark Humour.

Film is about Dev (Irrfan) who finds out one night that his wife (Kirti) is cheating on him. Because of EMIs and other interests, he decides to blackmail his wife- Reena's lover for some money. The lover boy (Arunoday Singh) asks for money to his wife Dolly (Divya Dutta). But her parents want the amount back from him. So, Lover Boy also blackmails his lover a.k.a. Dev's wife. Eventually, Dev is giving money to his wife which later he collects from that Lover boy. Meanwhile, colleagues of Dev also come in the picture to make some money. The chain becomes extremely complicated. For unlocking it, watch out this one.

Irrfan is superb. The scene of him running from his house after getting shocked to see his wife with another man is fantastic. Kirti is suitable and good. Arunoday delivers a good performance. Divya Dutta is as usual classy. Omi Vaidya is nice, too. Anuja Sathe plays an important role along with Pradhuman Singh and Gajraj Rao.

After Irrfan, the major plus point of this film is its music and songs. Amit Trivedi has given superb songs. First time I enjoyed all the rap songs in a film. Each and every song is perfect according to the story line. Lyrics has been written accordingly as well. 'Bewafa Beauty Pyaar Mein Cheating Kar Gayi!' Urmila Matondkar is there too in this item song. 'Nindaraan Diyaan' & 'Sataasat' are perfect. Patola and Happy Happy are not in the film, but they're also good.

Abhinay Deo is a good director. Each scene has its own element. First song of the film where Irrfan is all alone in the office and goes to bathroom says it all. The detailing of each posters and usage of props are up to the mark.

Though, this film is not as good as Delhi Belly. It is very slow. If you don't like to see new concepts in films, you will never gonna complete this film. Background score is superb. But still, we feel too much length of many scenes. Good editing or a good screenplay could have put this film in the league of classics. As of now, if you have patience, than only you will love it. Also, post interval part is not that slow as the pre-interval part. The game is happening till the last frame. So if you are giving it a chance, wait for the end. You will surely feel that- 'The time spent well'!

On the whole, pray for Irrfan's speedy recovery. Take your time along with you to enjoy his latest dark humour- Blackmail! 3/5*.

Blackmail is a film directed by Abhinay Deo. The film’s trailer had me hooking and finally I watched it yesterday night. I can say that this experiment was partially successful.

Plot: When Dev finds out that his wife Reena has been cheating on him he decides to blackmail her boyfriend Ranjit for money.

Story and direction: None other than Abhinay Deo could have done justice to the film. His expertise in dark comic thrillers is well known. The film has some excellent dialogues thanks to Pradhuman Singh Mall (who we know as Paddi from BIN LADEN Series and playing Anand in this film). Abhinay has a good way of using certain symbols in his films that depict the state of the characters. Also good are the characterization and the setting that this film uses. The blackmail itself had a very unique approach to it since the lead character had some loans and bills to pay off and him being short on money. But where the film actually lacks is the writing (story and screenplay). Praveez Shaikh (writer) has an interesting premise and characters with him. He also starts off on a great note. But after an hour or so, the film starts to get weird and twisted in not such a good way. Some subplots are introduced that have no bearing to the main story of the film. Towards the climax the film regains itself. But then the film has a kind of anti-climatic ending which was at least not understood by me.

Performances: Irrfan is a gem that Bollywood has and he brings life to the character that he plays and the film he is in. He just is beyond any words. Kirti Kulhari was another great artist in the film. Arunoday Singh and Divya Dutta were good in their roles. Pradhuman Singh is just awesome. Anuja Sathe and Gajraj Rao did justice to what was given to them. And finally, a special mention to Omi Vaidya who was just funny and outstanding in his role.

Music: The film’s music sits perfectly with the scenes and didn’t obstruct my viewing of the movie (Although I still would say that Guru Randhawa’s Patola seemed absolutely unnecessary). The track I liked was ‘Satasat’. Amit Trivedi’s mesmerizing voice and Amitabh Bhattacharya’s lyrics are things that made this song worth listening.

Favorite Scene: It would be the one where Dev has his first face to face meeting with his boss in his office. That scene was just hilarious and having Irrfan and Omi act in that scene was just awesome.

Verdict: I would not term it as a bad film, but had the story been more concrete I would have appreciated it more. Watch the film for some amazing performances and jokes that actually make you laugh.

I am going with a 7.5/10.

Blackmail is a difficult film to review… not just because I saw it at a pre-release special screening (normally we buy the tickets to ensure the review is fair and unbiased) but also because it’s difficult to gauge such a film based on certain criteria’s.
The film is about a common everyday person called Dev who one day finds out that his wife is having an affair and so begins the plot of this Blackmail.
Direction and Art:

The attention to detail by the director and art team is marvellous, the story is sort of set in navi Mumbai (being my residing city) and I could recognise the roads and streets of kharghar and vashi immediately. Followed by a close-up shot of the car’s license plate, which had a Vashi RTO number… this adds NOTHING to the story as such, but it makes the premise even more grounded and set in reality. Not too many people will pay attention to such details, but it’s nice that the director has seen fit to pepper his film with such detail, be it a misaligned gun or a water cut… Or a background hoarding which has a rather inappropriate double meaning line as a slogan…
(You will know what I am talking about when you see the movie)
Plot :

Now coming to the plot of the film, its rather well written but the pace is slightly lagging. If you liked this director’s previous outing with Delhi Belly, then the pace might disappoint you, as this isn’t a mad cap youth comedy but a more middle aged story.
Now we come to the dark humour part of the film…
This film is a DARK comedy. It gets AS DARK as possible in this setting. The director is more or less no holds barred and is only a few steps from reaching Tarantino heights of blood and gore albeit set in a much more ludicrously funny situation. Think Coen brothers but more desi…
VERY few films can make a violent death look funny, much less give the audience a nervous chuckle when a main character dies rather abruptly. This movie is not for the squeamish or the family crowd. The director has made the violence, death, blood and extremely perverse deeds of the characters appear rather humorous but not in a laugh out loud sort of way, but in a shake your head and say, ‘such people exists too’ sort of way.

Acting :

Irrfan as usual, delivers… He is flawless in the film. He doesn’t break character for a moment and he leaves behind his usual irrfan-isms and plays a very docile yet internally turbulent and a perverted office worker. His frustration is seen more in his eyes than his actions or dialog, which is damn good acting. His obsession with stealing other office worker’s wife’s photos is both perverse and yet so matter of factly done, it’s hard to say if it’s funny or just disgusting!
The rest of the cast delivers to, with really good performances all around. Omi viadya of 3 idiots is back and he is again playing chatur-ish type of a character. The cast of office workers around irrfan is given a big role in the film and they too play their roles very believably.
The character of irrfan’s wife is the only role, which has no substance or anything to it other than to deliver the films plot and act on its devices. She has no good dialog, no good scenes, nothing. I even forgot her name by the end of the film since she was so unmemorable. So when irrfans character writes her name, I had to ask someone, ‘who is that ?’

Overall :

This is not a film for everyone. Quite a few people in the audience gasped at the hyper violence unleashed at times. This is a DARK comedy, which shows how twisted everyday folk can become when the situation so calls for it…
So if you like such type of cinema, (such as… jaane bhi do yaaron , pineapple express, delhi belly, shor in the city, fargo, burn after reading, the big Lebowski) then by all means this film is for you…
If you go in expecting a ‘house full or welcome’ sort of rip roaring crass comedy, then stay away. This has Too much of good cinema for such expectations.

Rating :
I wanted to give this a solid Eight, but the ending was a bit flat and the pace was sort of slow, nothing unenjoyable, but certainly not as much fun as Delhi Belly.
While Belly was a more entertaining film, this was a much better made film in overall terms of quality, scripting and plot.
So, my final rating is 7/10.
A Good times at the cinemas for those who want something more than just pure faltu bakwass comedy and crime films.