Badla is a 2019 Indian Hindi-language mysterythriller film directed by Sujoy Ghosh and starring Amitabh Bachchan, Taapsee Pannu and Amrita Singh. Tony Luke, Manav Kaul and Tanveer Ghani appear in supporting roles. The film is produced by Red Chillies Entertainment and Azure Entertainment and is an official adaptation of the 2016 Spanish filmThe Invisible Guest. The story follows an interview between a lawyer and a businesswoman, in which the latter insists that she is being wrongfully framed for the murder of her lover. The film was released on 8 March 2019, and it received positive reviews from critics. It has grossed over worldwide against a production budget of to emerge as a commercial success.
Plot
Naina Sethi is a young and shrewd successful businesswoman with a perfect family. Her world turns upside down when she gets arrested for the murder of her secret lover, Arjun. Her lawyer Jimmy hires prestigious defense attorney Badal Gupta to defend her, and over the course of one late evening, they work together to find out what actually happened. Badal reveals that there is a witness whose testimony will incriminate her in the crime. Naina explains that she and Arjun were blackmailed by someone for their extramarital affair. They were called to a hotel in a remote location, where Naina was attacked; only to wake and find Arjun dead with the blackmail money. She was arrested but is out on bail. The police find no trace of anyone else being present in the room or breaking in. Badal tells Naina that she is not being honest with him. He questions her about the disappearance of a young man near the hotel. Naina reveals that she and Arjun were having a secret rendezvous in the area. On the way back, she accidentally ran into an oncoming car. The crash kills the driver of the other car, a young boy named Sunny. Arjun convinces Naina not to inform the police, and they decide to remove any trace of the crime. They put Sunny's body in the trunk of his car, and Naina dumps the car in a swamp. While Arjun is waiting for her, Rani and Nirmal, a local couple, meet him and invite him to their home, where he discovers that they are Sunny's parents. When Rani calls Sunny, Sunny's phone rings in Arjun's pocket as he had forgotten to dispose of it. He passes it off as accidentally sitting on it, but Rani is unconvinced. Arjun and Naina get away but become worried that they will be discovered. Rani identifies Naina's vehicle, making her a suspect, but Naina has her lawyer falsify an alibi. The police buy it but Rani confronts Naina and reveals that she knows the truth. She implores Naina to tell her Sunny's location but Naina keeps up her act of innocence. A few months later, Arjun and Naina are contacted by the blackmailer, leading to the present events. Badal decides that Rani had a motive for killing Arjun and could have easily done so since Sunny's father, Nirmal, works at the hotel. His plan is to acquit Naina by framing Rani for the crime. However, Naina, who now trusts Badal, reveals a secret: Sunny was alive in the trunk before she disposed of the car. However, she let him drown, deciding not to save him to protect herself. Surprised by her murderous and selfish actions, Badal proposes an alternate sequence of events in which Naina was the one who actually pressured Arjun into hiding the crime rather than Arjun. In this version, Arjun grows so guilty that he travels to the hotel to reveal the truth to Rani and Nirmal, prompting Naina to kill him. With the police knocking, she decides to injure herself and blame Rani for the crime. Naina denies this and claims that what Badal proposed earlier is the truth. Badal refuses to fight Naina's case. When she implores him for help, he agrees only if she honestly tells him if she killed Arjun. Naina confesses to Arjun's murder, and Badal says he will fight her case. He reveals that there is no witness; he had made that up to get Naina to tell the truth. Badal excuses himself for a moment while Naina receives a call from her lawyer Jimmy. She realizes that Badal's pen is interfering with the call. When the real Badal Gupta arrives, Naina, shocked, takes apart Badal's pen to reveal a voice recorder inside that recorded every word of their meeting, including her confessions of both murders. As she glances outside her window, she makes eye contact with Badal and Rani in the apartment building across from hers and realizes, as Badal takes off his disguise, that Badal is actually Nirmal. Rani calls the police for Naina's arrest as Nirmal quotes the Mahabharata, saying that Draupadi's revenge has been taken by Yudhishthira.
The principal photography of the film began on 14 June 2018 in Glasgow, Scotland.
Marketing and release
On 11 February 2019, Shah Rukh Khan, whose production house Red Chillies Entertainment is producing the film, tweeted two first look posters of the film, one with Bachchan's character and another with Pannu's. The film was released on International Women's Day, 8 March 2019 and is available online on Netflix. The film was certified by British Board of Film Classification with runtime of 118 minutes. On 12 February 2019, Red Chillies Entertainment posted the official trailer on YouTube. The trailer reached 252K views within 1 hour and has garnered 30 million views since the day of release.
Promotional videos
Three unplugged innovative promotional videos which involved a conversation between Shah Rukh Khan and Amitabh Bachchan were launched on 3 March 2019, 6 March 2019 and 9 March 2019 respectively, which also featured Taapsee Pannu, to promote the film.
Dialogue promos
Main Sach Hi Toh Bol Rahi Hoon was published on 25 February 2019, Homework on 28 February 2019, Sab Ka Sach Alag Alag Hota Hai on 1 March 2019 & Mere Paas Teen Sawaal Hain was published on 7 March 2019 on YouTube, featuring Amitabh Bachchan and Taapsee Pannu respectively.
Reception
Critical response
On Rotten Tomatoes, the film has scored 57% based on 14 reviews with an average rating of 5.94/10. Gaurang Chauhan reviewing for Times Now rates the film with three and half stars out of five and opines that Sujoy Ghosh has delivered yet another interesting, enticing and an edge of the seat mystery thriller. Rachit Gupta of The Times of India also rates the film with three and half stars out of five and finds that the film is a slick but predictable thriller with solid performances. He said, "Sujoy Ghosh’s Badla delivers solid thrills and some genuine twists with great effect." He feels that this whodunit film, keeps the viewer engaging and constantly guessing about the big reveal. Cinema200 too gave it three and half stars out of five and praised the climax along with Sujoy Ghosh's direction. Anupama Chopra of Film Companion gives two and half stars out of five with remarks, "Nothing is what it seems and there are many turns, but the film isn’t as clever as it thinks it is." and concludes the review as "Badla remains watchable until the end but it doesn’t become essential viewing." Saibal Chatterjee of NDTV giving it three stars out of five, finds Amitabh Bachchan classy and Taapsee Pannu right on button in edgy thriller. Taran Adarsh gives the film three and half stars out of five and finds it captivating and star cast of film Amitabh Bachchan, Taapsee and Amrita Singh brilliant. The film also marked the Hindi debut of Malayalam Actor Tony Luke. According to Anna M.M. Vetticad, " The model-turned Malayalam film actor Tony Luke makes his Hindi debut with Badla and delivers one of the most impressive performance of the lead trio. He brilliantly lends subtlety even to the most dramatic transformations of his character."
Box office
In its opening weekend Badla collected 27.38 crore from domestic market. The film had worldwide gross collection of 138.49 crore consisting of domestic gross of 103.88 crore and overseas gross of 34.61 crore.
Soundtrack
The music of the film is composed by Amaal Mallik, Anupam Roy and Clinton Cerejo while the lyrics are penned by Kumaar, A. M. Turaz, Siddhant Kaushal, Manoj Yadav, Anupam Roy and Jizzy. Amitabh Bachchan, inspired by Ranveer Singh's Gully Boy, rapped the song "Aukaat".
