Image Source: Google
Date: 12 May 2018
Venue: PVR Shalimar Bagh

Raazi is Meghna Gulzar’s latest film. Her previous film Talwar was a fine piece of work and had raised expectations. Raazi is also based on a real story albeit is way more mainstream than Talwar. It’s the story of Sehmat, an Indian spy who marries in a Pakistani family to pass on vital information to India around 1971 war. The film scores high on the subject. We don’t remember when was last we watched a film on even Indian spies forget women spies. Big thanks to Karan Johar and Dharma Production for putting their money on subjects and films like these.

Alia Bhatt has come a long way from Student of the Year to Highway to Raazi. More than her acting abilities, she is getting better at choosing the right roles. Even in films like Humpti Sharma ki Dulhania and Badrinath ki Dulhania, that were extremely mainstream she always had enough work to do to leave an impression. And Raazi is going to be a milestone in her career. She has never looked better and rarely has a whole movie focused on her.

Two other actors who underplay their characters with an elan are Vicky Kaushal (Sehmat’s husband) and Jaideep Ahlawat (Sehmat’s spymaster trainer). Kaushal has very few dialogues in the film but like a seasoned actor he acts and emotes with his expressions and his love for Sehmat and pain of being back-stabbed oozes out of screen. Not just acting, he looks fabulous in the film. A welcome break from Bollywood’s fascination with naturally good looking gora chitta muscular hero. Jaideep Ahlawat also manages to bring alive his ruthless compassion for his student through his acting. Shishir Sharma is impressive as Sehmat’s father in law.

The film needs some editing in the second half. Climax could have been chopped by at least 10 minutes and Alia’s screaming in disgust could have been avoided. Who started this trend in Bollywood of screaming looking at the sky to show your anger and disgust? Scenes like this makes a nuanced film mediocre.

Raazi was a Mother’s Day outing for one of us and incidentally we had kids with us as well. The film was liked by all of us and this proves a good film is a good film is a good film.