Badla (2019) Movie Review
A middle-aged man walks straight in a suit and enters an apartment inhabited by Naina Sethi (Tapsee Pannu), a well-known public figure who is having a complicated legal problem.
Badal Gupta (Amitabh Bachchan), the name of the middle-aged man, is a senior lawyer appointed to defend Sethi who is accused of killing Arjun (Tony Luke), the man she is suspected of having an affair with.
The task assigned to Badal Gupta is not only difficult, but impossible to solve, considering that Naina herself has many secrets that she has yet to reveal to herself.
Badla (2019) Movie Review
When Badal interrogates Sethi for the first time, he hopes to establish the facts by reversing the events that led up to the crime. But will Sethi reveal more than he has in his statement to the police? Or will Badal manage to look beyond the facts to devise a deductive theory to exonerate Sethi of the alleged crime? All of these things will become questions that will continue to linger throughout the film, and in the end will make the audience gasp at the climax that really surprises us all.
“Badla” itself is actually not a Bollywood film with an authentic story. This film is a remake of the Spanish film “Contratiempo” (2016) or better known as “The Invisible Guest” which was directed by Oriol Paulo. Oriol himself in Spain is known for his films with mystery thriller nuances such as “The Body” (2012) or “Julia’s Eyes” (2016).
In terms of the story itself, the original version and the remake version don’t have too much difference. The only difference is the set of locations that have now moved from Spain to Scotland, the characters are switched genders and include a few tips taken from the Mahabharata story, the rest are all exactly the same.
Sujoy Ghosh, who adapted this story, is actually no stranger to working on films of a similar genre. His famous work, Kahaani (2012) is one of the masterpieces in the world of Bollywood cinema that he has worked on with story plots and winding twists to the end (although unfortunately the sequel Kahaani 2 which came out in 2016 was not as good as the first version).
As for her acting, there is no doubt about these two casts , Pannu, who once played with Bachchan in Pink (2016), is now more mature in exchanging quite complex dialogues with Bachchan whose totality cannot be doubted, especially playing in all kinds of genres. Another surprise came from one of the other senior actresses, Amrita Singh who played Rani Kaul.
This actress whose name is rarely heard is still able to appear excellent as a mother who is grieving the loss of her child who has disappeared somewhere. She and her husband tried hard to find everywhere but the whereabouts of the child was still nowhere to be found. And the key that could connect his son’s whereabouts was only Sethi’s testimony, even though it seemed impossible, given his very strong alibi.
The back-and-forth flow applied in “Badla” makes us have to concentrate a little on listening to his words in more detail, especially when Badal starts exchanging arguments with all kinds of scenarios and alibis that might be carried out by Sethi.
The premise that starts from the beginning with dialogue between the main characters makes the film without further ado go straight to the point . There is no pause at all for us to loosen up our minds a little, all of that will drain our minds. But all of that will be paid in full at the final conclusion.
Conclusion about the movie – Badla
In the domestic arena, “Badla” on its second day has earned income of up to 13.25 Crore or approximately IDR 27 billion. And it seems that this film will reap success especially by the positive reviews shown by local critics.
For Chillers who like complex mystery stories in the style of Alfred Hitchcock or Agatha Christie, “Badla” with all the complexity of the story, is highly recommended for those of you who need a challenge more than films in general.
