Vishal Bhardwaj's strength is complex characters-driven drama, probing the human psyche and exploring how the characters deal with their inner conflicts and moral dilemmas. The characters in his movies may be gangsters, Underworld dons, or terrorists but they all seem normal, humane, and rooted in reality and with the strong flavor of local culture.
These characters, though very real, always have their eccentricities and idiosyncrasies which make them interesting and lift the movie itself and the whole experience of watching the movie. Salman-Salman (identical twins) in Haider, Shahid Kapoor (his peculiar stammering) & Bhope Bhau (with his piles) in Kaminey, Nandu Khatri (his petty greed and the whole mannerism) in The Blue Umbrella, to name a few; Maqbool, Omkara, 7 Khoon Maaf, Patakha are filled with such characters.
But when the main characters are one-dimensional, the plot falls flat and the screenplay is all over the place, the same peculiarities and quirks become irritating, painful, and stick out like a sore thumb. One such quirky character in Khufiya is the mother-in-law, although brilliantly performed (by Navnindra Behl) contributed nothing. Similarly, the spiritual guru, Yaar Jogiya (inspired by Sadguru?) played by Rahul Ram was also completely out of place and the whole sub-plot was boring and didn't work at all.
As mentioned, the screenplay is all over the place, literally and figuratively. Bangladesh in the first act, New Delhi in the second act, and finally in South Dakota, USA in the third act, but the agenda of the film and intent of the director are more scattered than the physical locations shown. Was he attempting for a cerebral geo-political/spy-thriller or going for a detailed character study set in this world, or was attempting to make a generic, quirky masala thriller? Sadly he failed in all three.
In the promotional interviews Vishal said he was fascinated and inspired by the details of the spy world described in Aamar Bhushan's book (Escape to Nowhere, on which the film is loosely based), but where is that detail in the movie, Vishal? No spy-craft or thrill in this spy-thriller. It is rather a dull spy-family drama showing the age-old, stereotypical, and much-explored personal life of spies in cinema (recently and much more effectively in the web series The Family Man).
The casting of the minor character, if rightly done adds to the believability of the world depicted in the film and supports the main cast. In Khufiya, none of the minor characters impress (which otherwise is always a strong point in Vishal's films), especially the American characters are performed so badly that they appear as caricatures (didn't work, if intentional).
Wamiqa Gabbi is fun to watch and Azmeri Haque Badhon really impressed in whatever small screetime she had. Ali Fazal, Ashish Vidhyarthi, and Atul Kulkarni all are good, and Tabu is Tabu although the character has nothing much to offer.
