Movie Review : Blackmail (2018)

Rating : 3/5
Genre : Drama, Comedy
Year : 2018
Running time : 2 hours 15 minutes
Director : Abhinay Deo
Cast : Irrfan Khan, Kirti Kulhari, Arunoday Singh, Divya Dutta
Kid rating : PG-15

When Dev Kaushal (Khan) finds out that his wife Reena (Kulhari) is cheating on him with someone called Ranjit Arora (Singh), he, instead of confronting them, starts to blackmail Ranjit. Ranjit, a gold-digger husband himself, stands to lose quite a bit if his wife Dolly (Dutta) hears of his infidelity. The problem of course is money – where to get it from?

Now, I thought Blackmail pretty decent, even though it has some flaws. Blackmail is directed by Abhinay Deo of Delhi Belly fame, and he brings some of that same sensibility here, with the attempt to be punchy (large-lettered headlines on screen) and snappy, the infusion of black humor. Blackmail does move fast, there’s always something happening. There is also a decent attempt at delineating the characters. We get a good feel for who Dev is, what Reena is like.

There are some problems too. There’s cringey humor with Dev’s work life at a toilet-paper-making company, and a could-have-been-left-out parallel track with Dev’s boss, played by Omi Vaidya. Some thing’s are not explained – why is Dev’s marriage so down in the dumps? Why does he have some of the fetishes he does have? For kicks? For laughs? To display character conflicts? Not very clearly done. Know that Blackmail is much more of a grown-up film than Delhi Belly was, so the humor that worked for that – it had a cast of 20-somethings – doesn’t quite work here.

Director Deo has assembled an impressive cast – Irrfan Khan, Kirti Kulhari (you might remember her from Pink and the dark Shaitan), Divya Dutta – are all superb. Arunoday Sigh is a bit OTT at times, but he does suffice as the lying lout Ranjit. There’s also Gajraj Rao as slimy private investigator Chawla. Also there is Shahid Kapoor and Ishaan Khatter’s mom Neelima Azeem playing Dolly’s mom’s role.

Even with all that – a great cast AND a reasonable plot-line, Blackmail is average not fabulous, like it could have been. It starts well, but then loses steam. It’s grey-character theme is well done, and they couldn’t have a better man that Irrfan to do it, but it falters. Blackmail is slap-dash, not quite knowing how to build up to a crescendo; it ends weakly. I’m pinning it on director Deo – his skill will take some honing.

Kidwise: Blood and bodies. Lasvicious characters. Adult theme. Unsuitable for younger kids.