A man comes home to surprise his wife, only to be shocked to see her cheating on him. He then starts to blackmail his wife's lover. Don't worry. I’m not giving you spoilers. We already know these things from the trailer itself. Delhi Belly director Abhinay Deo helms this black comedy, meaning you should expect to see a certain degree of irreverence on screen.
This is a the tale of a jilted husband who wants to take badlaa by blackmailing those who have betrayed him. The premise is interesting. Dev (Irrfan Khan) stares blankly and then tiptoes out of his house when he sees his wife Reena (Kriti Kulhari) in bed with Ranjit Arora (Arunoday Singh). Dev sets out to execute a bizarre scheme that ends up leaving him high and dry in unchartered territory. Arm-twisting Ranjit for money follows soon after. It causes a domino effect, with each participant then becoming both the blackmailer and the blackmailed.
For the viewer, the initial spark of watching a truly "hatke" film disappears as more people become a part of this messy labyrinth of lies and betrayal.
There is some repetition and a useless Urmila Matondkar song. There is also some bizarre sexism at play when the characters are shown mourning the death of a woman more because she was a “virgin”. The line “woh virgin thi" is repeated each time someone mentions her death.
Kriti Kulhari doesn’t have much to do in this film. Omi Vaidya delivers a bland act with his character who runs a toilet paper company. While there are welcome additions like Anuja Sathe, Gajraj Rao, Pradhuman Singh, Divya Dutta and even Arunoday Singh, one can’t help but feel bad for Irrfan Khan. Because this time around, his signature deadpan expression isn't a part of his craft to beautifully underplay the character. Instead, his expressions seem to convey more of a genuine cluelessness, probably about the direction of the film.
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