For Your Consideration: Badlapur [2015]

HIndie Awards 2016

For Your Consideration: Badlapur [2015]

Continuing on the Road to HIndie Awards, the next film is none other than Sriram Raghvan's Badlapur.

Promoted as a revenge thriller, Badlapur is quite a twisted dark tale of vengeance but above all else morality, divine intervention and toxic masculinity.

So let's get straight to it; 

Best Picture [Drama]: Dinesh Vijan and Sunil Lulla for Badlapur [EROS International]

Raghu's life is thrown into turmoil when his wife and child are killed in a freak criminal accident; as two men stage a bank robbery and kidnap them. One of the men; Liak is captured and kept for imprisonment for 20 years for the crime.

Distraught and disturbed by the circumstances; Raghu himself heads into a self imposed exile to hide his pain and suffering from loved ones. He does so in the small town of Badlapur where the tracks of trains and lives change.

Prompted to free Liak, after the despicable man is diagnosed with cancer; Raghu uses this opportunity of reawakened old wounds to plan his revenge on the man and his accomplice [who is supposedly the reason for his family's destruction].

As they say revenge then becomes a dish best served cold.

A surefire contender simply on the basis how dexterously the film navigates morally rich themes with both and exciting and insightful bent. Sriram Raghvan's comeback film paid dividends as his only profitable film and with great critical acclaim to boot.

EROS International having missed out the last year with only a nomination for Kalki Koechlin [Happy Ending] are back in the game and swinging hard. Badlapur has a huge set of nominations it is competing for and surprisingly with none of EROS's other major competitors against it.

So Badlapur's chance are supremely high, can it go all the way?

Best Director: Sriram Raghavan

After a disastrous 2012 where Raghvan was [slightly] unfairly lambasted for his big budget spy thriller Agent Vinod, he has returned to his roots. Adding to his own low budget dark noir thrillers such as Johnny Gaddar and Ek Hasina Thi; he brings Badlapur.

The feature is in essence a nice anti-thesis of his own works as well as those of the revenge genre as Badlapur explores not the idea of Badla [revenge] but Badla [change] and how a moral conundrum as well as the effective idea of 'what goes around, comes around' alters perceptions of right and just enough such that hero becomes villain and vice versa. Though to be truthful it's more complex then just black and white, making the film blisteringly entertaining.

Raghvan pulls this off with technical finesse and extracts career best performances from his two male actors. He is a definite shoe in for director despite the tough competition, especially considering what a comeback Badlapur marks for him.

Best Screenplay [Drama]: Sriram Raghavan, Arijit Biswas and Pooka Ladha Surti

Dealing with some deft themes and layered characters, Badlapur is a sure shot writing nominee.

The film has been adored for its wondrous twist but also the moral complexities it brings to fore in the viewers mind. It makes you ponder on the futilities of revenge. With a script as tight knit and worked on by three very like minded and insightful writers, one can see this as a big nod towards pushing the film to a best picture win. 

Best Actor in A Leading Role Male [Drama]: Varun Dhawan as Raghav 'Raghu' Pratap Singh

With a daunting career risk taken so early in his career, Dhawan deserves oodles of praise.

On top of that he is an early favorite; giving essentially a very interesting performance. Though too young and inexperience to portray the older broken and angered Raghu, Dhawan pulls it off proving those critical and skeptical wrong.

Two scenes highlight this; his lonely heartbreaking dance in the haunt littered with his families memories and things as well as the nuanced ticks he displays in his growing rage during the confrontation scene with Vinay Pathak and Radhika Apte's cowering couple.

Dhawan could make it to the top five despite a tough race not just dependent on his fascinating performance but deserved praise in taking such a fine risk.

Best Actor in A Supporting Role Male [Drama]: Nawazuddin Siddiqui as Liak Tungrekar

Despite his staggering ascent in this decade, the truth is Varun Dhawan is still considered the bigger star and leading man of this film. As such despite his meaty role, Siddiqui is being campaigned in the supporting category.

This is better for the powerhouse talent as it allows him to secure duel nominations in both categories with his own stirring turn in Manjhi: The Mountain Man as Leading Man.

It's a bumper year for Siddiqui and his much appreciated turn in Badlapur is a tough one to beat alongside his other likely nominations.

Best Actor in A Supporting Role Female [Drama]: Radhika Apte as Kanchan [Koko]

Who knew that out of the four female actors in this all male dominated drama; one would find a supporting female actor contender and not only that from the most unusual candidate.

If Siddiqui has had a bumper year; then her two film co-star has matched him toe to toe. In Badlapur she is the epitome of the sacrificial wife, an enlightening innocent character who will go through all kinds of hell to save her despicable husband but also do it with a spiteful head held high that makes you cheer her despite her ominous decisions.

Apte has top quantity to the boot this year so it might be a difficult task to see what she is worthy of being nominated for; she is her own competition with drama performances in not just Badlapur but also Manjhi: The Mountain Man and X: Past is Present to consider.

Best Ensemble

With so many fine performances littered in the film and the scary chance that some well deserving names might miss out; both Varun and Nawazuddin are honestly in a tough competitive year. The chances of an ensemble nomination grow stronger to contain all those that make this film a sensational ride.

Four female actors top the list as not only Apte but also Huma Qureshi, Divya Dutta and Yami Gautam give adequate support alongside a plethora of smaller parts for character actors from Ashwini Kalsekar to Pratima Kazmi and Murali Sharma to Kumud Mishra.

The ensemble is in strong effect and riding high on the success of this film.

Best Cinematography: Anil Mehta

Can Anil Mehta do any wrong?

The man is unfortunately however a top class three time nominee for the cinematography award, with two of them coming last year for his sublime and varied works in Highway and Finding Fanny.

His work here is once again totally different and on a whole other level, birthing the question as to whether his varied work can get him not only a coveted nomination once more but a victory in a year littered with finely shot films. 

His prior loss came to Carlos Catalan's soft work for Zindagi Na Milegi Dobara, who is also once again in contention with Dil Dhadakne Do.

Best Editing: Pooja Ladha Surti

Editing is a top component to accompany a directorial win as it is an important aspect that defines the directors finished product and his/her vision.

Surti is a regular staple of Sriram Raghavan's works and Badlapur is no different. Though the editing category is only filled with a winner rather than nominees.

This essentially means that the award will be a deciding factor in a best directorial win and if so the Badlapur team is making a case for both.

Best Original Score: Sachin-Jigar

With a Rock like sensation to it, Sachin-Jigar's score both needs to have a key tune that evokes the rage induced energy that a revenge film echoes and also creates a haunting atmosphere.

They are successful in both accounts, allowing these aspects of the film to have a tough grip on a category this year filled with champion pieces. EROS provides this as a supplemental nod to round out the Best Picture chances.

Best Original Song: 'Jee Karda' by Divya Kumar, 'Jeena Jeena' by Atif Aslam, 'Judaai' by Rekha Bhardwaj and Arijit Singh

An ambitious undertaking, but EROS has decided a massive campaign for all the songs on their Badlapur track. Each one plays to a different genre in a sense but with a unified theme of heartbreak and brooding at its core.

EROS made a splash in this category in 2012 when their own Rockstar was nominated for 3 nominations and managed to secure a win. That was an A.R. Rahman track.

Sachin-Jigar neither hold the same power nor will be able to with Rahman once again in contention for his Tamasha music [Distributed by UTV Motion Pictures]. It's indeed some legendary tough competition.

So there it is; Best Picture [Drama], Best Director, Best Screenplay [Drama], Best Actor in A Leading Role Male [Drama], Best Actor in a Supporting Role Male [Drama], Best Actor in a Supporting Role Female [Drama], Best Cinematography, Best Editing, Best Original Score, Best Original Song[s] and Best Ensemble.

EROS International is hoping for a massive overhaul of 13 nominations in 11 categories. What will it make?

'Nuff Said

Aneesh Raikundalia