Andhadhun review: You need to have patience to watch this thriller

Andhadhun starts as a romantic flick and gradually turns into a suspense thriller. But by the time, the story starts taking unexpected turns, you lose interest. But well, then it does make you sit up

Pragati Saxena

Published: 05 Oct 2018, 3:18 PM

Ayushman Khurrana is well-known for doing offbeat films and off beat roles. Director Shriram Raghavan is well known for making quite slick suspense thrillers. Remember Johny Gaddar, Badlapur and Raman Raghav? These movies (particularly Johny Gaddar ) kept you on the edge throughout.

Andhadhun is a thriller.. Granted, it starts as a romantic flick and gradually turns into a suspense thriller. But by the time, it becomes exciting and starts taking unexpected turns, you kind of lose interest. But, it does make you sit up.

The difference between the usual commercial thrillers and Andhadhun is that the entire story seems to unfold quite naturally. The characters do not sound dramatic though the protagonist pretends to be blind and then turns actually blind. It almost reminds you of a yesteryear film Dhund, where every character is doomed to be in a particular situation. Another remarkable and typical feature of Ayushmann Khurrana films’ is the comic relief in between a high-tension drama.

But wait. It's a Shriram Raghavan film. The characters will not be so simple. The diabolic streak runs in every single character, though characters like SHO Manohar (Manav Vij) and doctor Swami (Zakir Hussain) and Maushi have half stories, so to say, in an open ending, enigmatic interplay between the characters full of grey tones. At times, it's almost surreal, and the simpler human qualities fade before the all-pervading doubt when each character changes his/her stance when a crisis seems to arise. But that's Raghavan’s world which is, not very different from the real one, let's admit.

Even in most tragic situations, the director brings out such an irony that you can’t help smiling. When a rogue doctor forcibly tries to take out the protagonist Aakash’s kidneys, who has, by now turned really blind, the doctor’s phone has Shiva stuti as his phone’s caller tune and when he is saved by the woman who had initially sold him to the doctor, the Shiva song playing at the background makes the entire scene rather comic

And a little about Anil Dhawan and Tabu. Tabu, who is referred to as 'Lady Macbeth’ somewhere towards the end, is quite deft at playing such grey, nuanced and cold-hearted characters as the film’s character Simi who plays an ambitious but unsuccessful actress of the yesteryears. It was good to see Anil Dhawan in a fitting role of a silver screen hero of the past whose present is obsessed with the past glory.

In brief, you can say that it's a film about an artist who experiments with his art (music) by pretending to be blind and that leads him to many unwanted twists and turns of life. So, on the sideline, this question too keeps haunting the audience- whether one should take such chances to experiment with his art. As Simi (Tabu) remarks by insinuating- you do your music, why to experiment?

But then will art mean anything if it's not constantly experimented on, rediscovered and recreated? The apparent thriller of the film throws this question at the audience too.

Inspired by a French short film, The Piano Tuner, Andhadhun is good and gripping to watch if you have a little patience in the beginning.

Ayushmann Khurrana as the musician, and Amit Trivedi’s music fused with brief pieces of symphonies and Hindi filmy songs of the seventies are impressive.

The western classical music intertwined with the Hindi film music of the seventies creates a suitable and effective environment for the constantly shape-shifting story. Go, watch it.