Blind movie review: Sonam Kapoor’s impressive act cannot salvage this poorly-executed, predictable thriller

Stories about psycho killers on the prowl have always interested me, and a well-made one is a rare treat. It gets even better if they’re backed by good performances. But nothing can save a film that falls victim to sluggish writing, half-cooked screenplay and poor execution. For an edgy crime thriller, Shome Makhija’s Blind is drab, lacks thrill and doesn’t promise any adrenaline rush.

A remake of the 2011 Korean film by the same name, it is dark, intense and dramatic, but ends up being extremely predictable. The screenplay tries too hard to ingest elements of thrill and mystery, but together, they all fail to evoke a sense of fear or panic. So then, watching Sonam Kapoor back on screen after four years, was the single reason I sat back to see the film till end, only to be served a climax that’s stale and underwhelming.

Blind’s synopsis

Blind traces the journey of Gia Singh (Sonam Kapoor), a cop in Glasglow, who has lost her sight in an accident that also took the life of someone very close to her, leaving her with a forever grief to deal with. She is now living with her dog, Elsa, doing her mundane household chores every day, and trying to gather her life and put its broken pieces together.

On one fateful night, she gets in a taxi being driven by a man claiming to be the driver (Purab Kohli), and that ride changes everything. On sensing that the driver is hiding something in the boot of his car, Gia gets suspicious and confronts him, but to no avail. She reports the incident to the cops and Prithvi (Vinay Pathak) is assigned the case along with her as the eye witness and Shubham Saraf (Nikhil), another important witness to the case. What ensues next is a cat-and-mouse game between Gia and the serial kidnapper, killer and sexual predator.

What works in Blind and what doesn’t

Blind starts off on a sad note and follows a very slow pace, while setting the premise. And just when you think things will pace up, it leaves you just at that. And then, it’s like a car being driven at the same gear for the next two hours. There is barely any scene where the director presses the accelerator. There are some brakes and jolts you feel here and there, but that thrill element is mostly amiss. Even the dialogues are so average that you don’t feel connected to them whatsoever.

Gairik Sarkar’s cinematography is something that’s pretty in tune with the story, more than its characters. The colour palette he opts for with shades of blank, pink and red add a lot of drama to some of the portions. The mansion where Purab keeps the kidnapped women and the orphanage where Gia hides are shown to be some vintage properties and look spectacular. Tanupriya Sharma’s editing is just as bland as the screenplay with barely any thought behind putting the scenes together to entice the audiences and keep them on the edge.

Moreover, there is zero attempt to educate the audience about why on earth was Purab’s character the way he was and, abducting young women and torturing them to death. Did he have a troubled childhood? Was he abused as a teenager? Did he witness something cruel? Was he taking some kind of a revenge? Or was he just a sadist? There’s a reference to metaphorical blindness in one of the scenes when Purab’s character tells Gia, “Mere dimaag ke andhere mein mat ghuso Gia, bhatak jaogi (Don’t try to understand my dark mind, you will be lost).” And she replies, “Main toh andhere mein hi rehti hoon (I stay in the dark).”

I really expected the director to build something more on this, but sadly, it just ended at that. In the end, it’s only Gia’s theory we are left with that states such predators suffers from ‘depression, anxiety, childhood trauma’ and that’s why they torture women thinking them to be the weaker sex. I wish the director tried to add some more sense to it.

Sonam Kapoor is raw and real

As for performances, it’s not every day that you get to watch Sonam Kapoor do such not-so-glam and subdued roles. As Gia, she brings so much freshness to this character, shows restrain balancing the chaos around her and ends up being a likeable character. After Neerja, it’s now that I’ve actually seen Sonam do something intense like this. She is raw and real, plays a visually impaired person with a lot of honesty and conviction. Of course, her accent continues to be problematic, a bit distracting too, but for once, try and look past that and you won’t be disappointed in her acting. There is a bit of an issue in the emotional portions, where she underwhelms and struggles to emote well while crying or expressing grief.

Purab Kohli as the villain is the weakest portrayal in such a role I’ve seen in a long time. He’s neither menacing nor scary. As a sexual predator who derives pleasure in torturing women, there is literally negligible impact he leaves barring maybe a couple of scenes where he’s showing to be ruthless. Vinay Pathak as the investigating cop delivers an earnest performance and that’s obvious to expect from an actor of his calibre. Though it looks quite needless why his character was given a frivolous feel showing him as someone who is always eating, and acts funny even when not needed. A serious, gritty and no-nonsense cop would have worked better in such a story.

Lillete Dubey’s Aunty Maria was half-baked , and in whatever limited screen time she gets, she doesn’t tell us much about Gia’s back story or add any value to the narrative. Shubham Saraf has a pivotal role and for whatever screen time he gets, he keeps you invested.

If you are a sucker for thrillers, watch Blind for you should know what a poorly executed thriller looks like. The film is now streaming on JioCinema.

Film: Blind

Cast: Sonam Kapoor, Purab Kohli, Vinay Kohli, Shubham Saraf

Director: Shome Makhija