BADLAPUR: An eye for an eye...

2015 has just about started, but I don't know why I already think that there will perhaps not be a film better than Sriram Raghavan sir's 'Badlapur' this year. It is a dark, twisted story about revenge, and all those who are clued in to the story from trailers, interviews and other miscellany, know what's coming their way.

You know it all...

As most of you would reckon, this isn't a conventional review of what 'Badlapur' is all about, who acted well in it, and how many crores it might make at the box office; given the fact that it is an 'A' certified film. I have been a fan of Sriram Raghavan sir since 'Ek Haseena Thi'. His third film 'Agent Vinod' did upset the apple cart slightly, but ever since I came to know that he is making 'Badlapur', I was excited to watch it. More so, after I came to know that Sriram sir has pitted Varun Dhawan against Nawazuddin Siddiqui.

Chalk-cheese, rum-wine, cake-mutton, Gandhi-Hitler... so many variations struck my mind as far as the casting is concerned. I got to read the rough script of 'Badlapur' from an email address that I didn't know of - I read it as any self respecting fanboy. I was sweating by the time I had finished reading it. Could a film like this be made in Hindi? In my lifetime? In the Hindi film industry?

Quick flashback: I met Sriram sir when he was giving interviews a few days before the release of 'Agent Vinod'. I think I asked the stupidest question ever posed to him... I asked - You look like just another happy person, especially like a conservative middle class South Indian; how do you come up with such twisted stories? He smiled at me, embarrassed at the question... unable to reply to my stupid question. I moved on to the next question. Quick flashback over.

A little less than 20 minutes into 'Badlapur,' I had internalised the central character. Once upon a time I used to be a copywriter who used to wait to work on a condom account. Lingerie account I didn't even aspire for. So I had owned the guy, Raghu - he was me and all the other creative people I knew during my stint in advertising, rolled into one. Definitely not the nice ones. The twisted types. Especially a Malayalee guy, Padma Kumar C.K., who had a long name, who, for us was PKCK. In my first Old Monk session with him, he admitted that he was a Communist, and had killed a few people back in the day. I was scared shitless. That was the first and last time we drank together.

I am the kind of guy who feels guilty when the mosquito bleeds on me after I slapped it hard to death. I don't know what would it take for me to kill a human. This is the reason I knew that Raghu's reason to kill humans for revenge has to be strong enough for me to sit through 'Badlapur'. I cried almost through the first half of the film, and that's the reason I thought what Raghu did in the second half was justified. A creative mind that is depressed for more than a decade; in my book, could facilitate a world war, if nothing worse. Here Raghu had lost the two people who he loved the most in the universe.

Blood-spill was inevitable. What I wasn't expecting was who possibly would be the victims of his rage. Who actually is the victim here? Who is the hardened criminal? Was money the motive? Was it just sex? Did Raghu ever feel guilty of what he had done? Did he live happily ever after? Who was he fighting against? Was he angry with the cop/s, or those who ruined his entire existence without even intending to do so? What is justice? An eye for an eye? A life for a life? Two lives for two? Three for three? How will it ever help anybody? What the fuck?

The 'Jee karda' song captures the essence of 'Badlapur'. While many of us might just lick our wounds, and move on in life - not all of us are the same. Will one revenge a random road accident? What about rape? Was SRK's character in 'Baazigar' justified in doing what he ended up doing? What about Madhuri Dixit's character in 'Anjaam'? And Vijay Deenanath Chauhan? Is revenge pointless? What is the point one proves - especially when a life is lost? Somebody said, "revenge is a dish best served cold...," but what about those who like it hot?

SHOLAY


I am certainly not saying that I endorse what path the central character chose, in the process of taking revenge against those who destroyed his universe, just to ensure that he finds peace... or even come to terms with his loss, which only he knows how deep it was. All I am trying to say that I loved Sriram sir's 'Badlapur' to bits, and for some odd reason connected with Raghu and the choices that he made. The world - the mood - the characters - their motivations... somehow I just connected. 'Badlapur' is one of those rare films that manage to find an audience these days. It has its flaws... not denying that.



Any film / scenario that involves innocent lives being lost, for no reason strong enough, will find its haters, but 'Badlapur' is a film about a guy who lost his own plot while he was plotting the rest of it it for a good fifteen years or less. Objectivity, perspective and much more is lost, when the loss is way too personal. May be that woman shouldn't have died, or perhaps he should have given away the spoils to charity... Why is the evil man not evil enough for all us to hate him unanimously? What about the evil guy's sidekick? Why does the evil guy have a loving mother, like the rest of us?

I could perhaps go on and perhaps write another script that just involves Nawaz's character and the one played by Huma... But that's just me... I truly hope 'Badlapur' finds its audience, and then drives home the point that revenge is pointless, beyond a point. What we need to realise is that you can't or shouldn't go all out and become the Gabbar, or the Mogambo when you could be Arun bhaiyya. The ultimate success of Sriram sir's 'Badlapur' depends on the fact that who is the audience rooting for on the way back home.

I personally think that the written material of 'Badlapur' could be made into ten different films at the very least. It all depends on who chooses to make it, and what the intention of the maker is. What I took back from Sriram sir's latest film is that peace is a better idea. Even if we fight till the last person standing has collapsed, what remains is a lonely existence. What does one live off? Memories? They were never enough in the first place. The operative word that makes sense in this zone is - LOVE.

There is enough of it for all of us. It is all about looking for it in the right places.