When was the last time that you were intrigued by the memory loss of the protagonist in a #Bollywood movie? #Ghajini (#AmirKhan) and "U, Me, Aur Hum" (#Kajol), remember? Well, we have another movie at hand which dwells on the premise of memory loss.
Just as the name of the movie suggests, #BLANK revolves around a person whose memory has gone blank, and he has forgotten the past. Is he telling the truth or is there some twist in the tale? Does the title have any other significance with respect to the storyline? This forms the crux of the movie.
The mystery #thriller ‘Blank’ introduces #KaranKapadia in Bollywood. He is the protagonist of the film. His character ‘Hanif’ is a suicide bomber who has set out on a deadly mission. Coincidentally, he loses his memory after an accident. #SunnyDeol (SS Diwan) is the chief officer of the Anti Terrorist Squad in Mumbai. Hanif and Diwan appear in almost every frame of the film garnering the maximum screen time. The movie is a kind of a jugalbandi between Hanif and Diwan that occurs amidst the bombing attack in Mumbai.
This film certainly has some positive sides. The build up of the story is excellent. It can be called as a perfect beginning for a thriller mystery. Unfortunately, the movie begins to fall apart as the story progresses. Karan has tried his best to do justice to his role in the film. He is depicted as a rough and tough man on a mission. His action sequences are also quite promising for a debutant. Sunny Deol also gives a killer performance as the chief of the Anti Terrorist Squad.
Diwan's character demanded a strong portrayal, and Sunny Deol nailed the character bang on. In few of the scenes, we could get glimpses of the young Sunny Deol (from movies like #Ghayal, #Ziddi, and #Damini) in Diwan.
The foundation of every mystery thriller is the storyline and screenplay. The story idea of this film is indeed unique, and also, we have not seen many films based on suicide bombers in Bollywood (except for movies like Black and White, Dil Se, The Terrorist, etc). The film had all the ingredients of a mystery thriller; however, it missed out on an appropriate execution. The director's (#BehzadKhambata) lack of experience is quite evident via the poor treatment of the plot.
Primarily, the idea of a man's heart beat to be used as the battery of a bomb seems lifted from Iron Man. It becomes extremely difficult for the audience to believe in this concept at the first go. However, we have seen crazier concepts being executed in movies, especially the South Indian movies. So, we can give the director a benefit of doubt in this case. The movie has few other loopholes too.
In the first half of the film, we witness that the son of 'Diwan is arrested by the police from a rave party, and in spite of saving his son from the police, Diwan advises him to go through the police trials. However, apart from this scene, not much light is shed on the family life of Diwan in the film. Maybe the incident of Diwan's son is to depict the integrity and toughness of the character of Sunny Deol.
The head of the terrorist organisation, Maqsood (Jameel Khan), speaks such fluent Urdu that it seems quite unbelievable for the audience. The film highlights the issues of misinterpretation of Quran and how the Muslims are being inducted to become terrorists at a very early age. There is nothing novel about terrorism in BLANK except for the planning of the suicide bombing. Ishita Dutta (Husna) and Karanvir Sharma (Rohit) have tried to give their best performances despite having lesser screen time compared to the lead characters.
The solitary song 'Himmat Karja’ seems out of place and seems unnecessary just before the crunch moment of the mystery thriller. There is another song featuring Akshay Kumar named 'Ali Ali.’ A special thanks should be given to the director for this song. Since the song plays when the credit roll, the audience leave the hall on a peaceful note.
Our Verdict: 'Blank’ is certainly not a must- watch film. The showtimes of this movie are quite less too. However, you can still go for this film on the weekend if you are a fan of Sunny Deol. It is difficult for the film to sustain at the box office as ‘Avengers: Endgame’ is still donning the box office, and in the next week, the Bollywood biggie 'Student of The Year 2’ is going to release.
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Our Rating: 2.5/5.0
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Movie: BLANK
Director: Behzad Khambata
Writers: Pranav Adarsh, Pradeep Atluri (concept), Behzad Khambata (writer)
Stars: Sunny Deol, Karan Kapadia, Karanvir Sharma, Ishita Dutta, Rashika Pradhan
Release Date: 3rd May 2019
Run-time: 2:17 Hrs
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