Badla Movie Review

Poster of Taapsee Pannu and Amitabh Bachchan in the 2019 hit mystery thriller film, Badla

After watching the trailer for Badla, I had high expectations for this star-studded mystery thriller. The riveting background score, foreign cinematography, and suspenseful storyline immediately caught my attention, and I couldn’t wait to see the film. When I finally got the chance to see this remake of the hit 2016 Spanish film The Invisible Guest, I was on the edge of the seat with my eyes glued to the screen for the entire two hours. My high expectations were not only met but exceeded from this all-around Bollywood masterpiece that challenges you to pay keen attention and use your deduction carefully. What. A. Film.

SPOILER ALERT: My review will reference some spoilers, so if you haven’t watched this movie yet, I encourage you to read this post after experiencing the film yourself!

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Starting with the plot, the storywriters did an amazing job of crafting a suspenseful thriller with no traces of masala BS that kept the audience guessing in speculation about Arjun’s (Tony Luke) murder. The film starts with Naina Sethi (Taapsee Pannu) wound up in her lover Arjun’s murder case, and her lawyer, Jimmy (Manav Kaul) brings the highly acclaimed, undefeated Badal Gupta (Amitabh Bachchan) out of retirement to help Naina in this case. As Badal and Naina’s three-hour appointment filled with mind games and illusions unfolds, we are taken on this journey through Naina’s secret affair with Arjun, the accident that kills Sunny (Antonio Aekeel), and the subsequent game of lies that Naina and Arjun play in an attempt to hide their footprints.

The premises of Badla are quite unique yet relatable. In light of our previous article about women’s representation in Bollywood (Female-Centric Films in Bollywood: Finally Some Progress?), this movie does a good job of casting Naina and Rani (Amrita Singh) in more progressive lights. Sujoy Ghosh consciously switched the genders of the lawyer (Badal) and the client (Naina) from the original Spanish iteration to likely convey subtle messages about gender equality in films. Naina is a successful, strong CEO, wife, and mother who travels frequently for business trips, defeating the shameful yet prevalent South Asian notion that women should be passive and confined to the household lifestyle. The directors cast Naina as someone that the audience can almost empathize for and relate with as she walks us through her internal and external conflicts that began with a guilty extramarital affair with Arjun and ended eventual chain of lies to cover up her mistakes in an attempt to be happy with her family. Rani, on the other hand, is a loving mother whose determination to avenge her son’s death drives her to intelligently devise this revenge plan, in which she disguises her husband, Nirmal (Tanveer Ghani), as Badal Gupta to successfully corner Naina in her pool of lies. The scene where Rani meets Naina in a business awards ceremony and directly confronts Naina about her son’s death was masterfully conducted and jittered my nerves. These strong women characters are rightfully granted their fair share of screen time and do not disappoint in the least, impressing the audience with their acting skills and ability to live up to these complex roles.

Speaking of acting skills, Amitabh Bachchan delivered another stellar acting performance. The directors and Bachchan did a good job of crafting Badal Gupta (who we find out in the end is Nirmal) as a lawyer who is emotionally unaffected as he deduces through Sunny’s death, despite the case’s large emotional ramifications on Nirmal. Bachchan’s onstage screen presence is unbeatable as he cleverly outwits Naina and delivers poignant one-liners and metaphors. He makes the infamous Mahabharata reference about how the epic is not about the Kauravas’ revenge as Naina thinks, but rather about Draupadi’s revenge. It took me a while, but I understood it to be a metaphor to how Rani (in this case, Draupadi) executes her revenge plan to avenge her son’s death against the unrighteous Naina (representative of the Kauravas). This metaphor could also be a nod to how perspective plays a key role in both Badla – where switching Naina and Arjun’s perspectives reveals a whole different story – and the Mahabharata – where Krishna, Karna, the Pandavas, and the Kauravas each have their own unique perspectives that change the meaning of the epic. However, I didn’t think this metaphor was as deep as it was portrayed to be. The writers could have easily picked a more fitting analogy that captured Naina’s internal conflicts that led to her plight and/or her switching perspectives with Arjun. It was a decent swing to make this Spanish adaptation relevant to an Indian audience with a well-known historical epic, but it didn’t hit home for me considering its loose correlation to the movie’s situation.

While Badla is a hit in my eyes as it is, there are a few things the directors could have done to elevate the film to another level. I would have liked to see more of a backstory about what led Naina to her extramarital affair with Arjun. The movie was only two hours long, which is noticeably shorter compared to most Bollywood films. A few scenes about Naina’s situation about her family, business life, and internal struggles prior to her affair would have made the audience relate with her even more, thus making the end revelation about Naina being the true culprit even more shocking. Additionally, Nirmal’s sudden illness after his son’s death and Rani’s diligence in seeking revenge against Naina seemed a bit unnaturally placed in the plot. In light of having just lost her son, wouldn’t Rani naturally prioritize her husband’s deteriorating health? And how did Nirmal all of a sudden get healthy and execute this brilliant masquerade plan to corner Naina? Lastly, I thought that the ending, though satisfying, was not fulfilling enough. I appreciated the quick turn of events where Naina connects the dots between the microphone pen, “Badal” arriving early, and the lies about a new witness, but it would have been significantly more effective to see Naina and Rani come face-to-face one last time after all that unfolded instead of simply staring through windows in opposite buildings. The tension between the two would have been sky-high and thrilled the audience with a more cinematically dramatic ending, in a good way.

Badla was nonetheless a hit film that exceeded my expectations and lived up to the hype of the trailer. The acting skills, mind games, suspense, storyline, cinematography, and background score all contributed to a masterful execution of this mystery thriller that I would highly recommend. I greatly appreciated this film avoiding the awkwardly placed songs and comedy scenes that plague other masala film throughout India, and instead focusing on this elaborate mind game of a plot. Bollywood needs more of Sujoy Ghosh’s cinematic mastermind to deliver blockbuster mystery films.

Last but not least, here’s that one number many of you are probably looking for. I hope you enjoyed this movie review to mean more than just a number, as it’s merely a formality at the end of the day in an attempt to quantify the qualitative details of a film. Feel free to share your thoughts in the comments below.

Rating: 8.5/10