Khufiya

Vishal Bhardwaj is one of our competent film makers and one does look forward to seeing his movies. This one is spy thriller post the Kargil war of 1999. The central character Krishna Mehra (played by Tabu ) is a special operative in R and AW who is doggedly pursuing Ravi ( Ali Fazal) suspected to be mole in the security organization. As a few of her plans go awry, she has to deal with them along with personal problems she has with her teenaged son who feels neglected due to mom's hectic schedule. Ali Fazal who lives with mother, wife and infant son also has a turbulent family life. The movie focusses on the cat and mouse game between Tabu and Ali.

Director Vishal Bhardwaj keeps the narrative at a reasonably fast and exciting pace. The audience are kept engaged with the developments. Those familiar with the working of intelligence organizations may find technical loop holes but the average person gets carried away with cloak and dagger stuff. There are surprises, secrets, agents working undercover, hush hush conversations, bugs planted, operatives listening in, watching with binoculars, clandestine meetings, surreptitious movements etc etc in plenty as the movie progresses in the comparatively long runtime of 154 minutes. Some good acting byTabu, Ali Fazal and Ashish Vidyarthi makes it watchable. Wamiqa Gabbi is the heroine who has done well while Azmeri Haque Badhon gives a good account of herself in a brief role.

One of the best part is Wamiqa Gabbi's dance n her sex scene. What an amazing body n moves she has.

Fans of Richard Gere's The Double, Gary Oldman's Tinker Tailer.... & Hank's Bridge of Spies will enjoy this spy drama.

Ali Fazal gave a restrained but solid performance.

Tabu was jus added to make it look like female empowerment stuff. They shud have settled for an old actor whose character is retired n has much more experience than Tabu's character.

The only annoying thing is the lack of tension during the dinner scene with the mutton dish.

They cud have easily added some violence n disturbing effect.

As mostly observed in Hindi films, somehow they just don't know how to direct the foreign cast, either look overcooked or way too shabby. I'll give it to Khufiya, have managed that aspect pretty well. But that's just about it. It's a pale shadow of a Bharadwaj movie clan, so much so, that even Tabu looks slightly disinterested at times, which is the rarest of rare sights. Such a potent cast, and yet apart from Gabbi, nobody looked remotely scraped in their acting prowess. Gabbi, great in most parts, has surely provided a wider array of emotions, which, understandably looked a tad overwhelming in the second half. Assuming that your attention is still gripped till the interval, it shall be severely tested by the triviality and immaturity of the plot in the latter half. The best scene though belongs to Gabbi and her short dance sequence.

Whenever confronted with the term 'espionage thriller', we automatically assume that the narrative will be laden with action and explosions; we seldom anticipate a slow-burn drama that may take its time and proceed with caution.

Therefore, projects like "Khufiya" would always face severe criticism because of how they approach this genre, which is very atypical of the standards set by decades of arbitrary rituals!

That said, my disappointment doesn't correlate with its moderately alien tonality; on the contrary, I liked how different it came across from all other spy movies.

Most of my qualms are regarding the screenplay's insipid and lethargic nature. The first half is fine, but the second half struggles hard to maintain the sense of engagement. The writing took too much time to get to the definitive juncture, but even then, the payoff was mild compared to what I wanted.

The performances are commendable, though, with Tabu shining in her role again. But it's Wamiqa Gabbi who made the greater impression, especially in the latter half of the tale.

So unlike Vishal Bharadwaj. The story and acting is below par. The dialogues are childish. Shows Vishal's clear obsession with Wamiqa, having cast her in another tepid serial Charlie Chopra, something akin to what Ram Gopal Verma did to promote his favorite stone cold actresses and everybody knows where he is now.

Very disappointing.

The dialogues lack the punch that is required. The movie seems to have been directed by a new comer. He would have done a better job.

The director has been able to gather an impressive cast but could not extract what was needed to make this movie a success.

Just avoid this movie.