Badlapur Film

[Darth Gupta]

Two friends, Liaq and Harman, rob a bank in Pune and steal a car belonging to Misha and her son Robin. During the ensuing chase, Robin falls out of the vehicle and Misha gets shot. As per the plan, Harman escapes while the police arrest Liaq. Both Misha and Robin die, shattering Raghav "Raghu" Purohit, Misha's husband and Robin's father. He attacks Liaq in prison and approaches a private detective who tells him about Liaq's girlfriend, a sex worker named Jhimli. Raghu offers all the insurance money he received for his son's death in exchange for Liaq's partner's name, but Jhimli refuses. Enraged, he assaults her. Liaq is convicted for the robbery and sentenced to jail, and Raghu exiles himself to a reclusive life far away from Pune.

Fifteen years later, Liaq becomes terminally ill and wishes to spend his remaining life with his mother. Raghu is approached by a social worker, Shobha, who asks him to forgive Liaq, but he declines. Liaq's mother Zeenat tells him Liaq's partner's name, wanting her son to be paroled on compassionate grounds. Liaq is paroled but followed by a cop so as to be led to Harman. Raghu locates Harman and is invited to lunch by Harman's wife Kanchan "Koko" Khatri, where his true intentions are revealed. Harman denies having killed Misha and Robin and Koko pleads that he spare them. Raghu demands she sleep with him in exchange. He takes her to the bedroom and exacts revenge by making Koko strip and forcing her to scream to make Harman believe they're having sex.

Liaq contacts Harman for his share of the money but Raghu murders Koko and Harman with a hammer. He then goes to meet Shobha and pretends to be in love with her, creating the perfect alibi. Liaq learns that his mother gave Harman's name to Raghu in exchange for his freedom. Shobha is enraged to learn that Raghu told the cops they had sex. A fight ensues between Raghu and Liaq. Liaq reveals that he did kill Raghu's family but that he did so out of sheer panic, making him different from Raghu, who planned his murders with a cool mind and without guilt.

Liaq goes to meet Jhimli, now the concubine of a local businessman, Patil, one last time before his death. Having circumstantial evidence against Raghu, Govind tries to blackmail him into giving him Liaq's share of the money. However, Liaq walks into the police station and takes the blame for Raghu's crimes, giving Raghu a second chance to live life while redeeming himself.

Raja Sen from Rediff.com rated it 4 out of 5 and said "Badlapur is a dark, unflinching, fantastic film."[14] Sudhish Kamath from The Hindu wrote that the film was "darkly ambitious and very well made."[15] Rachit Gupta from Filmfare stated that it had "exhilarating performances, stellar storytelling."[16]

Saibal Chatterjee of NDTV rated it 3/5 and noted the pervasive contemptful treatment of women in the film, writing, "If one can ignore the overt misogyny on show all through the film, Badlapur throws up enough surprises to hold the viewer's interest right until the bitter end."[17]

Mohar Basu of The Times of India rated Badlapur 4 out of 5.[18] Shubhra Gupta of The Indian Express rated the movie 2.5 stars out of 5, describing it as riveting, but also noting that the film "comes off too contrived in many places, and leaves us hanging in others."[19] Rajeev Masand and Md Abidur Rahaman of CNN-IBN rated it 3.5 out of 5 and wrote: "The pace slackens post-intermission, plot contrivances are many, and you might say the film is misogynistic in its treatment of women ... [However], the film keeps you on your toes, curious to see where its twists and turns will lead."[20]

During the interviews makers said that Badlapur is based on true events happened in central Europe in 1980s. Some say these events actually happened in Pune itself. Does anybody know the exact real events happened.

So although in interviews Raghaven frequently refers to his movie being based on real-life events, it appears he means based on the novel, which itself was supposedly based on real-life events. The implication in Raghavan's quote is that Carlotto met a prisoner whilst behind bars and Raghavan's movie is based on their story.

'I have never once made up a killing,' he says. 'Every single death in everything I have written relates to a real killing, one for which I have read the autopsy report. I have seen the documents, I have carried out one-to-one interviews with murderers. This is my way of recording what is happening in present day Italy.

'The Noir writers talk about the social and political situation right now; they react very quickly to changes in the criminal world. In Italy, Mediterranean Noir is called the literature of reality. I even have journalists calling me when they are writing about crime, to ask me what is going on. The world of journalism has changed. There is no investigation now. Italy has lost any real sense of truth, because nobody believes the official "truths".

And of course we now reach the problem. With the names changed, and without access to all the various autopsy reports and public records, it's impossible to verify whether the people in the book are actually real, are mostly real with fictional embellishments, or entirely fictional creations of Carlotto.

Carlotto hasn't given any interviews where has has proven the events - largely I suspect because he doesn't need to. And whilst the story is riveting, I doubt it's so unique that it would be easy to identify if it had really occurred.

The movie is based on real incidents that happened in 1990. The incident that happened is just known to have happened, there hasn't been an actual recording of the exact events. The film's story, however, follows those events closely, do just watch the film you'll get an idea of what happened. The book Death's Dark Abyss, just inspired the movie's theme and overall emotion, not the story.

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I am an avid Bollywood film goer; I even founded and led one of the largest film studios in India, producing/distributing a breathtaking spectrum of genres, from Singh Is King to Queen to That Girl In Yellow Boots.

Yesterday I watched Badlapur. Besides being an outstanding film, I found it an unusual take on human behavior, at once complex and unpredictable, a bit like the intense, twisted fare on Oscar-winning Hollywood cinema.

It reminded me of an old Urdu couplet that my father would hum on a ghazal-filled, alcohol laced, smoked up winter evening in Ajmer: jise log kehtey hain zindagi, woh toh haadson ka hujoom hai. Loosely transliterated, it means that people may believe life is ordained by a complex chemistry, but actually, it is just happenstance, a collection of chance incidents.

I'll cut to the chase. I much preferred Varun Dhawan's metamorphosis over to the dark side than I did Sidharth Malhotra's in last year's lukewarm, albeit successful Ek Villain. I get it. The comparisons may be a tad unfair, but they're inevitable given that both actors made their debut in the same film. Dhawan's transformation into the brutal, lean, mean killing machine is far more convincing and compelling than the act Malhotra pulled off last year, and his act alone is reason enough to watch this morbid, gruesome and yet compelling tale of revenge and redemption.

He gets able support from the film's 'antagonist', actually I wont call him that; The film's other character played with equal gusto by Nawazuddin Siddiqui, who initially, does a superb job of making us dislike him, and then in the second half, goes full circle and does an equally formidable job of making our hearts go out to his otherwise despicable character.

In case you've been living under a rock, and if you have, then the name's bleeding obvious. Badlapur tells the story of Raghav a.k.a Raghu (Dhawan), who's consumed with revenge against the duo that were responsible for killing both his wife (Yami Gautam), and his son during a piddly bank heist. Of the two thugs, one, Liak (Siddiqui) gets sentenced for twenty years, only to be released five years earlier due to his failing health, prompting Raghu to seek answers in his quest for closure and redemption.

One thing's for certain. Sriram Raghavan's superbly directed saga of vengeance is nowhere near everyone's cup of tea. It's morbid, morose and sullen in tone but what works in its favour, is that it never deviates from the main plot by delving into meandering sub plots and unwanted item numbers. Raghavan sticks to the plot and to his credit again, takes a huge risk, by not going down the convoluted part of tying things up in the end either. The climax is a bit of a cliff hanger and left open to interpretation, and I enjoyed those smaller touches that he gives us here. For once we're spared soppy, generic fluff and kudos to the team for thinking a little out of the box.

In terms of performances, it goes without saying that both Dhawan and Siddiqui are OUTSTANDING in the film leaving precious little for the supporting cast to work with but credit where its due. Radhika Apte, Divya Dutta, Huma Qureshi and Vinay Pathak pull of their parts with earnestness, but it would have been nice if Raghavan had delved a little into their back stories so that their motives were a little clearer, rather than making them mere pawns in Raghu's quest for revenge.

On the flip side too, you never fully engage with the love story purely because there's precious little chemistry between Dhawan and Gautam. Their romance should have been given just a tiny little more air time, which would have made it easier to relate to Raghu's plight. Moreover, I'm not quite sure why Gautam went to town promoting the film either, given that she has sweet FA to do in it.

I'm going with four stars for Badlapur. It's a difficult and uncomfortable watch, and some of the gratuitous violence is a little hard to digest, but overall its fast paced, and somewhat unique plot and stellar performances by Dhawan and Siddiqui rescue it from becoming just another run of the mill tale of one up-manship and vengeance.

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