Blackmail Movie Review (2018)

Let's begin by saying a few great words for the recently demised, Mr. Irrfan Khan. He was great at what he did, acting. He made us believe in every character that he played and it is everything you need from a person of his stature. Dev Kaushal is an average working Joe who's often found sitting at work during late hours, enjoying a Pac-Man spoof in an attempt to avoid the solid traffic outside during peak hours, or perhaps to avoid the silence that will ensue if he makes an appearance at home early; Dev has recently been married so I think he has very less to talk about to his wife.

Dev has a colleague-cum-friend at work Anand–A very eccentric and debauchee in a manner, who suggests that he does something exciting for his wife and goes home with a surprise to make the first move towards a happy marriage. Dev surprisingly takes his advice and reports home early one fine day. 

What follows is a fiasco with moments of hilarity and story-taking turns that only grip you to your seat, eager to find out what happens next. 

During the movie, it's easy to identify that Dev is a man of awkward, tacit behavior and most of his feelings are repressed which often takes resort to daydreaming. Well, whatever works, right?

He admires–not spies, his wife through a hole in the kitchen usually to look at her beautiful sleeping face. But he finds her fondling with another man, a large inbuilt sitting right in their bedroom. Having witnessed this sends him into another few instances of daydream-like fury, where his mind gets the better of him, and imagines how he's killed either of the two cheaters. But he decides otherwise and leaves home. 

Finding out more about how loaded the spouse of his cheating wife's lover is, he comes up with a plan to blackmail, posing as anonymous to the man into paying him to avoid letting this out. I don't want to give away how the story ends but here's a take on Dev's psychology throughout this movie. 

A regular middle-class man often finds himself incapable of achieving his true ambitions in life, bearing the weight of being the primary earner, food bringer, and keeping his family safe. To add to it, he finds himself in a situation of doubt where his fate and the wicked probability of life leave him with little room, to be honest. Also, it's fun sometimes to be cunning when you know that it's for the right cause. Revenge often is easier to execute since it's fueled by a burning emotion of hate.

It's always a humongous task being the bigger man and letting temptations go past you. Dev Kaushal ends up doing the right thing which regardless of being endearing is an essential step towards a content life.

No, I'm still not going to give away spoilers ;)

All in all, it's a fun watch that will make you feel like you're on a mini rollercoaster of sorts.