Blackmail
Year: 2018
Director: Abhinay Deo
Cast: Irrfan Khan, Arunoday Singh, Omi Vaidya, Divya Datta, Kirti Kulhari

Coming from Abhinay Deo, the director who gave us the hilarious Delhi Belly, and featuring the redoubtable Irrfan Khan in the lead, Blackmail is not everyone’s cup of tea.

For close to half an hour in the beginning, you watch the screen proceedings in a baffled bored manner as the central characters (and some directorial devices!) take a while to be comprehensible. But just when you are about to write it off, the movie springs to life and how!

It is a wonderfully warped black comedy, which almost reminds of Coen brothers’ delicious style. A subdued, overworked executive (Irrfan) discovers that his wife (Kirti Kulhari) is having an affair. The enraged hubby decides to blackmail her lover (Arunoday Singh), who in turn is cheating on his rich, well-connected wife (Divya Dutta). The idea gets spilled over and thus begins a crazy series of blackmails, which would throw so many lives into a tizzy!

Irrfan Khan shows us why he is rated so highly as an actor. He delivers a pitch perfect performance, playing the jilted husband, who himself is a pervert, peeping tom psycho! While Arunoday Singh as the cornered lover and Divya Dutta as his perpetually sozzled high society wife are excellent portrayals, it is Omi Vaidya’s dimwit boss, who steals scenes. It is the comedian’s best role since 3 Idiots.

A slew of outrageously absurd and funny characters and events make Blackmail a rip-roaring comedy. Abhinay Deo’s film might not appeal to the traditional movie-goers or even the front-benchers, but for the fans of dark wacky humor, it is a rare treat!

Rating

3 stars