Vishal Bhardwaj & Tabu’s Khufiya Movie Review: Not just a spy thriller, but an emotional drama too | Netflix

Language: Hindi and Bengali

Director: Vishal Bhardwaj

Cast: Tabu, Ali Fazal, Ashish Vidyarthi and Wamiqa Gabbi

Khufiya is master-filmmaker Vishal Bhardwaj’s first Netflix debut. Based on the novel ‘Escape To Nowhere’ by Amar Bhushan, the former chief of counter espionage at India’s foreign intelligence agency, Research and Analysis Wing (RAW), the film revolves around the complicated dual lives of spies. Known for adapting books into movies, this time Bhradwaj has done a great job

The movie revolves around the lives of the agents. Tabu here plays the role of a Raw agent who is on a mission to find a mole in the intelligence agency. She is seen playing a very different role where she has stretched her craft beyond limit. Caught between her erratic job schedules and her responsibilities of a mother, Tabu has always been able to bring out the true emotions of the character. Khufiya is an intense combination of suspense and complexity.

The different layers and complexities of each of the characters is dealt in the finest possible ways. No black and white characters do we see in reality and here too, Bhradwaj has tried his best to show the different shades of each and every character.

The confused sexuality angle in Tabu’s character and the cause of her divorce is shown in a beautiful subtle way. And never once does she blame her husband (Atul Kulkarni) for the rift in the relationship. In fact, she says that he is a ‘good man’ which he for sure is. It’s a tug of war of emotions when her son wants to know the cause of her divorcing his father and her job profile. The tiredness and stress in her life is beautifully brought out by Tabu through her effortless expressions. There is a lot of depth and nuance in her character where she wants to bring justice to the cause of her partner’s death. Through Khufiya, Bhradwaj has handled the LGBTQ angle in a very mature way.

Khufiya is a movie, where Bhradwaj has given a lot of importance to each of the women characters be it Tabu, Wamiqa Gabbi, Bangladeshi actress Azmeri Haque Badhon and Navindra Behl. So, it wasn’t just Tabu who had different layers to her character, but all of them. And mind you all the characters, be it Azmeri Haque Badhon, Wamiqa Gabbi and Navindra Behl had powerful roles and they were all unapologetically vulnerable.

The film doesn’t show the US intelligence agency in a positive light. Ali Fazal, who plays the role of a Delhi based US agent is shown to be a perfect family man but is too overshadowed by his powerful mother (Navindra Behl) who knows in and out about how things work in the Indian government and the US intelligence agency. It all starts with greed for a luxurious life and the love for Armani suits, regular parties and single malts.

The show stopper of the film is Azmeri Haque Badhon. Her performance is brilliant and with her effortless charm, she lights up the film to such an extent that she overshadows the performance of Tabu, when both the actors are on the same screen.

Khufiya in Urdu means secret and true to its title, Tabu has effortlessly added that secret element to her character where she and her ex-husband are okay with her sexuality, but she doesn’t want to reveal it to the whole world including her son. It is right at the end of the movie where she makes an effort to reveal her identity to her son, but that too is a secret because the movie ends right after she makes a call.

Rating: 3 out of 5

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