shuklavinash

Sriram Raghavan, a big name in thriller comes up with an absolutely misleading title 'Badlapur', which is not just appalling, but also tries to justify and glorify the unjust behavior of a so called 'grief-stricken' husband Raghav (Varun Dhawan) for all the wrong reasons.

Simply put, the story, the sullen-eyed Varun Dhawan and Raghavan, all failed to impress me. Raghavan is living under an impression of being the Quentin Tarantino of India, No sir, you are far away from him! Tarantino is a legend, who doesn't glorify misconducts, but captures them all with a neutral eye. And Varun, you are no John Travolta, so just stick to some senseless comedies like Judwaa 2. Stop fooling the people in the name of thriller and neo-noir. This is a bleak and badly written film, with tonnes of objectionable scenes and senseless editing. What was the message after all? That all the grief-stricken husbands and fathers should become misogynists, rape women, kill them brutally, flirt with them or use them as sex toys?

I have serious doubt on the intentions of this teary-eyed protagonist (or should we call him antagonist?) Raghav, who pretends to be sad and shows his tears as an alibi of his emotions, but he has no qualms in behaving like a sex maniac when it comes to women, so he is a go-getter when it comes to wine, women and wealth. Yes, you see his dark career progress so rapidly!

At least Nawazuddin was true to his character. He was a born cheater, but somehow ends up accepting his mistakes and turns himself to the police, but what about Raghav? Does the name 'Badlapur' have anything to do with 'Adla-Badli', where Nawazuddin walks into a gentleman's shoes, whereas Dhawan ends up wearing a cheater's shoes?

If Badlapur is the standard of thrillers these days, then I must say that the thriller genre is on a downward slide and will soon die if directors like Sriram Raghavan keep strangulating it. It's utterly shameful to read positive reviews about this film, with people cheering it up as a revenge saga or something of a great value rather than actually realizing its shallowness, depravity and meaninglessness. As a viewer, I am ashamed to have watched this piece of junk, which is a living example of pathetic, putrefied and decayed taste of the audience of the new millenium.

I remember watching City of Blood back in 2003 with my father. My Dad is always on a hunt for obscure thrillers and he somehow found it in one of the VCD libraries close to my house. I did not realize how sought after this flick has become and people are paying premium prices to buy it just to make their collection complete.

So, it was a lazy summer afternoon and my Dad and I didn't have anything to do other than eating salted peanuts. He verbally introduced me through Joe Stewardson (who I did not know) and his stellar performance in 1972 film 'My Life'. I saw Stewardson's photo on the VCD cover and almost became sure of his acting abilities by looking at his age. Well I must say that Stewardson didn't disappoint me.

We played the VCD and saw two tribesmen about 2000 years ago running through a pristine forest with one of them wielding a strange club following his victim. The victim finally ends up near a waterfall and is brutally bludgeoned to death by the other tribesman. The scene was unique and captivated both of us. We sat tightly expecting a great slasher.

Then the film cuts to the present times, where we have Joe Stewardson playing a medical examiner. His superiors assign him a task of investigating the brutal murders of some city hookers. Stewardson is himself recovering from the death of his wife and child and is all alone to fight away his aloofness, until he meets Abigail, a young hooker, who hasn't lost her soul and still listens to her conscience. Joe tends to find solace in her arms while he is caught up between solving the murder mystery of the prostitutes and fighting his own aloofness. He somehow manages to discover that the killer is using the same ancient club to kill the victims.

By the time Stewardson discovers the truth about murder weapon, we had almost forgotten that it had something to do with the movie. The movie had become too political, tiresome and boring for us. We were expecting it to take off from where it started, but it never took off. There is a throng of other actors as well, but the film remains stale to the very end. I don't really know what inspired Roodt to direct this film. It is neither a slasher, nor a political thriller and finally not even a tad entertaining. It sluggishly drags itself through the scenes and to the last frame.

I really had a fight with my Dad that day as because of him I had to spend more than an hour of my life to watch this crap. I could have eaten peanuts alone as doing so would be a better experience.

Readers, please avoid this piece of $hit at any cost. I warn those who are dying to buy this to make their collection complete. This is one rotten and senseless film that has nothing to do with entertainment. It is gloomy, boring, sluggish and utterly useless. The only good things about this film are the opening scene where one tribesman kills another and sincere efforts by Joe Stewardson. Apart from this, there is nothing here for you.

Wonderful! As a routine check, I was going through the horror catalogs of the early 80s slashers and happened to stumble upon this hell of an atmospheric and one of the best backwood slashers! Those who are pigeonholing this work of sheer excellence with the more gruesome and necessarily body count oriented Friday the 13th, Don't Go in the Woods or The Burning should actually understand that these films have been only made to quench the thirst of gore freaks. Although they do have a bit of atmosphere, yet kill count remains the deciding factor.

The Final Terror is more serious and is at par with Jeff Lieberman's 1981 film 'Just Before Dawn'. I say this because both these films have ample scope of showing corpse after corpse with pools of blood, but they don't do so. They use silence, isolation, mystery and serenity of the forest as horror intensifiers. It's the sound of the waterfall, river or creek that continuously tells you the domain you are walking into. Its the echo that comes back to you validating that you are far away from civilization and one your own to save your neck! Even though The Final Terror doesn't have gruesome kills to show on screen, it certainly has some of the best images that burn permanently in your mind. The old style bus taking a turn into the forest, the old shack amidst wilderness devoid of human presence, the chicken in the cage clucking in the silence of the forest and the wolf's severed head in the cupboard (if you know what I mean). The antagonist here is unique and has perhaps inspired M.J. Bassett to create a similar looking antagonist in his film 'Wilderness'.

As far as the story is concerned, it is essentially a slasher tale. Some trainee forest officers set off into the wild to learn survival skills. Despite the caretaker and driver Eggar's (Joe Pantoliano) objection, the expedition leader Mike (Mark Metcalf) takes the troop to a restricted area. It is there when the members discover the horrors of the jungle, where they become the target of a mysterious figure, who is hell bent on decimating the intruders.

Personally, I admire this film for it's great visuals and believable nature. Murders are not forced on the viewers and what is shown there looks genuine and well-within the capacity of our antagonist. Overall, it's a very nice backwood slasher! You won't regret after watching it!