Over the years, Indian audience has widely changed its taste for trends of movies. With big budget, star-studded movies failing harshly on the box-office in recent years, new content and low budget gems are rising and shining. Modern directors are more keen to produce complex content variety movies than what calls for the masses. Badla is one example in the niche.
With the release of Badla, Sujoy Ghosh has once again cemented his position as a master storyteller. Much like his previously acclaimed creation Kahaani, the plot of Badla is seen to be interwoven between moving back and forth in time with twisty bumpers in between. The movie released on March 8 and is the official adaptation of 2017 Spanish film _The Invisible Gues_t - which happens to be streaming under Netflix as well by the name Contratiempo. (It’s Netflix! Go watch now)
Badla - Ft. Amitabh Bachchan
“Pay attention to the details-The answer is in the details” - Badal Gupta (Amitabh Bachchan) is seen saying this over and over to Naina Sethi (Tapsee Pannu) in the movie. Much of the point is taken deep by Sujoy Ghosh too who evidently knows his way around the stories that are hiding more than what’s on the surface. Ghosh stays mostly adhered to the blueprint of the original film, only swapping the genders of principle characters keeping suspense on the boiling point and viewers invested in the plot-line.
Tapsee Pannu in Badla
Speaking of technicalities, unfolding of the most part in the countryside with melancholic, dark hues. This sets a cold picture both literally and figuratively. Noticeably the over-dramatic background score and the gloomy sky shots further heighten the character moral ambiguity. Although after a point, the twists which drop every few minutes, do start feeling a bit contrived. But what’s more interesting is the storytelling that draws parallels to Mahabharata from time to time, making the screenplay more clever and relatable.
