Daily Times

One can hardly expect haws and awws moments coming from a Bollywood movie that too not one but umpteen in number. Interestingly, this hypothesis of mine was averted the moment I tried to make sense of words appearing on the cinema screen at the very beginning of ‘Andhadhun’: ‘What
is life? It all depends on liver.’

As the movie begins, it’s hard to make sense of this text card followed by half-done tale of a rabbit; meanwhile as the plot proceeds one starts feeling that it all is falling in place just then we are told, ‘picture abhi baaqi hai mairey dost’. (The movie has not ended)

‘Andhadhun’ is indeed another feather in the cap for Ayushmank Khurrana, who with subtle ease gels well within his character

With the whirlpools of thrill, twists and turns, Sriram Raghavan and Hemanth Rao succeed in keeping the audience on its toes. A never ending ripple effect begins the moment Akash (Ayushmank Khurrana, a blind piano player) meets the girl Sophie (Radhika Apte) whose father owns a bar. The perfect trio of Akash’s life – he, his piano, his cat – gets distorted the moment he steps into the ‘real world’.

Having a walk down the memory lane of Bollywood timeline, it can be noted that piano was made the part of a set to either enhance the romance of couple, or to suggest the inner dejected state, but Andhadhun provides a whole new voice to the piano who through its melody sings in harmony with the curves and lines of the storyline. The fear of what lies ahead and how things will unfold at the end make you clutch your seat harder and harder with every scene. It indeed is a treat for cine-goers and cinephiles who need to watch it at least twice to assure they are not missing on any reference or symbol. Such a clever interplay of plot and characters!

Ironically, as the name suggests, every other character is indiscriminately running after the pursuit of money be it a deranged doctor, an indigent richshaw driver, a plucky lottery ticket seller,a crooked cop with his lunatic wife and the brain box wife of a yesteryear actor. A mad place where people from different classes can go to any extent just to fill their pockets with cash. Akash is stuck in a world where there is no seed of morality, a place where you cannot trust anyone with anything; a perfect maze of blackmailing and backstabbing. The first half serves to be a blend of light humor, suspense and thrill while latter part surely provides a more bleak and chaotic picture. Just when you think you-know-it-all the very next moment you start questioning what you know!

‘Andhadhun’ is indeed another feather in the cap for Ayushmank Khurrana, who with subtle ease gels well within his character. An excellent actor who knows how to deliver sarcasm, pun and wit with poise and grace! And how can one forget that score, Naina Da Kya Kasoor. It surely makes you tap your feet the moment it kicks off!

A never ending ripple effect begins the moment Akash (Ayushmank Khurrana, a blind piano player) meets the girl Sophie (Radhika Apte) whose father owns a bar

Some dialogues are not just dialogues but encompass in them a whole philosophy of life. Like, when Akash tells Sophie of his composed tune, that he’ll definitely finish it soon, Sophie replies: “Some things are complete only because they are unfinished.”

The struggle, of Akash, had been for real; the struggle of bouncing between two worlds of sight and blindness, adjusting to its structure and design. Even the last scene – as Akash kicks the empty bottle can on the road with his stick – gives you no time to comprehend the chain of events and just when you make a pout to utter the very word, ohh, the screen cuts to blacks. Ironically, it’s the end, but this is where your mind begins its journey of contemplation to question and make sense of it all!

It indeed is a structured crime drama that will surely give your mind a food for thought!

Published in Daily Times, November 5^th 2018.