Dev (Irrfan Khan) and his wife Reena (Kirti Kulhari) are a couple in loveless marriage. While Reena is in an extra-marital affair with her ex-boyfriend, Ranjeet (Arunoday Singh), Dev likes to stay long hours in the office playing Pac man (How I loved that game too!). Dev and Reena are a perfect example of a couple who are going through the seven-year itch syndrome! BUT the only difference is that their life becomes one wacky roller coaster ride when Dev gets home unexpectedly early from office one day and finds Reena with her Ranjeet in bed!
Once Dev discovers the affair, he decides to blackmail Ranjeet and Ranjeet in turn anonymously blackmails Reena to pay Dev the money! Yes, it’s one mad circle! That’s not all Dev too has a blackmailer and to know who it is you’ve got to watch this fun and wacky film.
Blackmail is directed by ad filmmaker Abhinay Deo, who has earlier directed films like Delhi Belly, Game and Force 2. Abhinay has conveyed the satire on life beautifully even though the film could have been crisper and the pace a little faster keeping in mind the film is a thriller. However, Abhinay has great control over his characters.
Irrfan Khan, of course, is brilliant at what he does and at times he says a lot without actually saying anything. His style of dialogue delivery, poker-faced humour, emoting etc. is something that is unmatchable. The surprise in the film was Arunoday who according to me was in terrific form! You could say that this is one of the best performances in his career. Divya Dutta who plays his rich, dominating wife has less to do in the film as compared to the challenging roles she has done in most of her films. Kirti as the bored housewife compliments Irrfan’s character. Pradhuman Singh who plays Anand, Dev’s colleague and friend has given a great performance too. Omi Vaidya still seems to have a strong Chatur (3 Idiots) hangover. His acting, accent and body language is exactly the same as Chatur. He plays Dev’s boss who runs an advertising agency and is obsessed with saving water and selling toilet paper!
The film has many sharp twists, so much so that it made a fellow critic sitting next to me go, “WTF!” all through the second half of the film! Blackmail is enjoyable but if you think dark comedy is not your cup of tea, then go watch the film for Urmila Matondkar’s sizzling comeback and Irrfan Khan’s wonderful acting skills.
Blackmail is a good one time watch.
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