A right-angled triangle
BLACKMAIL Direction: Abhinav Deo Actors: Irrfan Khan, Arunoday Singh, Omi Vaidya, Kirti Kulhari
Abhinav Deo (Delhi Belly) is back with another black comedy, and this time he has a novel story and some wonderful actors – Irrfan Khan, Divya Dutta, Kirti Kulhari, Arunoday Singh -- to support him in his endeavour.
An average middle-class man gets home early one day to find the wife in bed with another man. Instead of confronting them, he decides to use blackmail, triggering a chain of events that are both dramatic and hilarious.
Irrfan plays the protagonist, Dev Kaushal; Kirti is his wife, Arunoday, the lover.
The plot is well-thought-out and springs genuine surprises. The humour is actually funny.
There is a cold yet refreshing pragmatism to the motives of these characters. When Dev first finds out about the affair, his thoughts go to all the desperate things he would like to do in that moment — kill her, kill the guy. He settles on a much more practical route for his revenge. The boyfriend is married to a corporator’s daughter, so Dev demands money. How much? Well, that is a deft calculation of his EMIs and basic household expenses.
Abhinav Deo layers his tale just right, with all the rhythms and frustruations of middleclass work and home lives. He even manages to make some telling comments on misogyny and consent — and he uses male character to do it, which is truly heartening to see.
Irrfan is effortless as the sadistic, mean-spirited man who pretends to be meek and righteous and yet steals pictures of other people’s wives at work and masturbates to them in the office washroom. Kirti and Arunoday are competent in their roles, but it is Divya’s Dolly — Arunoday’s wife — who becomes a pillar of acting support to Irrfan’s Dev.
If there is one area where Deo falters, it is the pacing. He spends an entire hour establishing his plot and characters, during which the story hardly moves at all.
Overall, though, this is a fun ride, realistic yet engaging and entertaining — and there aren’t that many movies you can say that for.