Andhadhun - A Delicious Thriller | Movie Review

Director: SriRam Raghavan

Cast: Ayushmann Khurrana, Tabu, Radhika Apte

Duration: 2hr 30min

Streaming on: Netflix 

Now I'm certainly late to the party to watch Andhadhun but after watching it, I fell in love with it. The plot is certainly an interesting one. We follow our protagonist Akash, a piano player pretending to be blind who becomes entangled in a number of problems due to the murder of a former film actor.

But many films have intriguing plots, yet fail in execution. Thankfully this one doesn't. It takes these characters that it has set up, and pits them up against impossible odds and keeps building on its concept. 

I think the first half of this film is an absolute masterclass in filmmaking and writing. Since this film is a thriller, it needs to be constantly unfolding. 

That is done effectively through the use of reversals.

Reversal in a story provides a change that may be unexpected and which allows the story to be extended as 'part 2' is described.

Some examples are -

• We see Akash blind - Turns out its just a performance
• Akash enters house to play piano - Turns out there's dead body there
• He is taken to the bathroom - Turns out there's another man inside
• He goes to the police station - Turns out the head constable is the man in the bathroom

These aren't for shock value, because all these plot twists affects the story moving forward, and changes the way you look at certain characters which is why it works. 

My favorite scene is easily the one where Akash realizes that there's a dead body in the house, yet he has to pretend to be blind while playing the piano. Even the littlest mistakes could cost him his life which is why the scene is filled with tension. 

The scene works because of the knowledge of the characters. 

• Simi (Tabu) and Manohar (Cop) know that Akash is blind.
• Akash knows that they committed the murder, but has to let them think he's blind.

Even the stakes are set up brilliantly. Akash could die if he lets his guard down. 

Now its genius how Akash plays the piano as Simi and Manohar clean the wine (which was misleading us to think it was blood at first) and drag the body, because the tension just keeps escalating and the score to that scene is provided to us from Akash himself as he plays these thriller/slasher music. 

The music in that scene is diegetic, because that in turn adds to the overall feeling the scene wants to emanate. 

"Diegetic", in the cinema, typically refers to the internal world created by the story that the characters themselves experience.

There are multiple wide shots during that scene which establishes the geography of the house and the locations of the characters and their goals. Simi and Manohar just want to get rid of the body, whereas Akash just wishes to evacuate the crime scene. 

Plus it even challenges the capabilities of each actor as they're all hiding something from each other which forces them to feel more 3 dimensional. 

Even the scene where Simi visits Akash's house and tries all sorts of ways to check whether Akash is really blind or not. So again, characters try to reveal what is being hidden from them and it constantly unfolds itself that changes the rest of the story overall. 

But after Akash becomes visually impaired for real, that's where the first half ends, and so does the best parts of the film.

Now I don't hate or even dislike the second half, but since it comes after the genius first half, it pails in comparison. I mean it took a while for me to get used to Akash teaming up with a local doctor, a maid and an auto driver. 

Even the scene with the rabbit felt very misplaced from the overall storyline to me at least; and in that scene, when the rabbit hits the car windshield, Simi's scream sound effect and the car crash's sound effect was absolutely horrible. Like it was so cartoonish and amateur that it took me out of the experience. 

For the ending, I like the "Nolan-esque" approach by leaving to us the audience to theorize whether Akash is really blind or not. It's something new for Indian Cinema, yet it feels natural to the world of the film. 

Now the score and acting of the film is extremely phenomenal. I loved the performances. Tabu and Ayushmann for the film is an example of perfect casting. 

But here's why I think this film (for the most part) excels in it's writing. It is indeed, a delicious thriller.

Thank You for reading

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