Yesterday at 4 pm:
Me sitting in office. Surfing bookmyshow. I came across Badla. Based on ‘The Invisible Guest’. For some reason I fail to understand, the name did not ring a bell.
Amitabh Bachchan. Tapsee Pannu. Amrita Singh.
Wow! I thought. I called my partner .
‘Should I book Badla for today?’
‘Umm…. I have a lot of work to finish… I need to complete few calls. Ghar aao.. Fir dekhte hain’..
‘Dekhte hain… Matlab.. We will watch it wala dekhte hain or we will discuss wala dekhte hain’.
‘Haan ghar aao. Fir dekhte hain’.
I went back to finishing up office work. After some time he called me.
‘Is there a night show today? In case I get free later…..’
And so I booked it.. Despite my reputation of falling asleep in night shows… This movie would have too many twists and turns to keep me awake…
In the car, my partner mentioned something about watching the trailer of Badla.
‘No!! Don’t tell me!! I don’t like to know anything about the movie before watching it! And this is a thriller. Don’t want to ruin it!!’
So, with a lot of expectations and excitement I went for the show.
The casting started. Based on ‘The Invisible Guest’.
The casting included visuals of a hotel room. This time it did ring a bell…
About a year ago:
I love watching international movies on Netflix. In fact, my partner often says to me ‘Can you find a movie, which we can watch without subtitles!’ But this was back when I was single. On a lazy weekend, I was searching for Spanish movies on Netflix and found The Invisible Guest. I found the movie really interesting. I thought I should tell my mother too. She may like it. She was busy with the morning house work. I told her to watch it with me. So she hurried up and joined me.
I had already watched the first half by now. She told me I could finish the movie, and she could catch it later. But I wanted to watch with her. So I replayed it from the beginning. Watched the first half again. We completed the movie together. And I loved it. I was so impressed by the movie that I googled the director.
Oriol Paulo it was. I searched for more of his movies on Netflix. The only one I found was ‘The Body’. Watched it too. It was not as brilliant but still a good watch . I felt the writers of these two movies have strong, strong views on hit and run cases. A personal experience could be possible.
Few months later, my sister and niece visited. Sister asked me to play a good movie on Netflix. I immediately recommended The Invisible Guest. I watched it again with them. The third time!! Niece who was about 10, picked up on the mystery early on in the movie. I was amazed at how smart she is.
Back to present
So here I was, watching a night show, based on a movie I had already watched three times. I was bored already. I hoped that they would have changed it a bit.
Maybe it would be different.
No it was not. They copied it scene by scene. As if it was not bad enough that I had it memorized scene by scene!! All they did was reverse the genders of the lead characters. And add a few explanations here and there, assuming the audience would be too stupid to understand. And a few forced references to Mahabharata.
Maybe the acting would be good.
Nope. I have never disliked Tapsee’s performance so much. No it was not like you hate a negative character because they act so well. It was just a very bad performance. I am wondering if Pink was a fluke.Tony Luke’s accent did not seem to suit the character. In fact, the entire set-up in UK did suit the desi characters. Amrita Singh was over the top in the first half. She did well in the second half. I was seeing her on the big screen after a long time, and so it was nice to see her, irrespective of how she acted. Amitabh Bachchan did not seem convinced of his role. I thought he would say:
Nah! I don’t buy it…. But I’ll do it anyway…
Those of you who have not seen The Invisible Guest will probably like it. The plot of the movie is amazing. But if you have seen it already, please do not watch this movie. In fact, better to skip it completely and watch the original on Netflix.
For someone who loved the original, recommended it to so many people, watched it almost thrice, and was stupid enough to not even remember it before booking , this movie was a colossal waste. Waste of time, money and memory of a brilliant movie.
Bollywood, please stop copying from international cinema. You ruined it!
My only takeaway was a dialogue that went something like:
‘Recognizing the truth is wise. But one who cannot differentiate between truth and lies is foolish!’
Powerful thought….