Blind movie review: Sonam Kapoor Ahuja's thriller barely manages to thrill

Cast: Sonam Kapoor Ahuja, Purab Kohli, Vinay Pathak, Lillete Dubey

Director: Shome Makhija

Language: Hindi

Spoilers Ahead

There’s something about Korean cinema that continues to fascinate Hindi filmmakers, but the visceral nature of their narrative or the rawness of the performances barely reflect in Bollywood adaptations. With OTT on the block, many shows have gone ahead and essayed brutality like poetry, but the era prior to that is no match to the originals. Zinda can never be Oldboy, Ek Villain looks like Aashiqui in front of I Saw The Devil, and despite its melancholic pain, Awarapan didn’t turn out to be as soothing as A Bittersweet Life. Oh yes, Salman Khan jumped into the bandwagon too and made a pompous attempt at Ode To My Father with Bharat.

It’s now time for Sonam Kapoor to act in a Korean remake that goes by the name of Blind. The Hindi version is also titled Blind. The screener provided had a watermark right at the center big enough to actually blind you. The film begins with Kapoor’s character, a cop name Gia, handcuffing his brother and forcefully driving him out of a party because he has his exams. One moment and everything changes. She’s thwarted by guilt and anguish, ala Aamir Khan in Talaash; the stubbornness of these characters leads to a life of misery and despair. The cinematography is purposely gloomy, to suggest the world of the protagonist and the perils that are about to follow.

A blind girl on the streets of Glasgow at night, all alone, looks for a cab and enters that very impending and inevitable danger and doom. An appropriately haunting Purab Kohli reveals his demonic side even before we can see him when he slows down his car and the camera uncomfortably pans on Kapoor; it’s his eyes that are doing all the talking here. Nobody needs to be told he’s not what he seems to be, he preys on women and quotes Shakespeare. One of his victims is named Mia Wallace and Quentin Tarantino can’t stop laughing. And I couldn’t stop laughing at the alarmingly unsound scene where Vinay Pathak’s boss asks him to take Gia’s statement despite his dismissive approach, and when he returns, that very boss asks him not to take her statement seriously (???).

The film is produced by Sujoy Ghosh and at places, Blind does possess the seedy atmospherics of Badla, but director Shome Makhija, who has also penned the screenplay, doesn’t feel the need to throw any twists in the story. It’s all a battle between the angel and the devil, and a never-ending battle at that. Certain lines mouthed by Kohli will take you back to the days of Asur that were not too far behind, and a loyal canine refreshes the memories of Teri Meherbaniyan that was in 1985. That was the year when Anil Kapoor starred in Meri Jung. Why is it mentioned here? Maybe because completing this film becomes a battle after a point.

Blind is now streaming on JioCinema

Rating: 2 (out of 5 stars)