Badlapur

Fleeing a bank robbery, the robbers hijack a car and kill the woman and child inside. The woman was Raghu's wife. One of the robbers, Liak, is caught and given twenty years; the other is never found. Raghu gives everything up and withdraws to a town called Badlapur, where he waits fifteen years. When word comes that Liak has cancer and is to be released, Raghu moves. Sriram Raghavan directs. Varun Dhawan plays Raghu and Nawazuddin Siddiqui plays Liak. The idea is that revenge ruins the hero. Step by step Raghu becomes something worse than the criminal, and the narrative never puts him in the right; Liak is funny, talkative and at times likeable. That inversion is uncommon in mainstream Indian cinema and became the most discussed thing about the film. Raghavan works in the noir shape; Johnny Gaddaar is his, and later Andhadhun. Here too the narrative gives information in pieces rather than in order. Nawazuddin Siddiqui's performance carries it and is the strongest thing in the writing. The women stand at the edge of the narrative and some scenes were criticised for it. It runs a little over two hours and the pace drops in the second half. Who it is for: viewers who like Indian noir and morally clouded revenge stories. Who it is not for: the violence is harsh, none of the characters is sympathetic, and some scenes are stretched.