Badla (transl. Revenge) is a 2019 Indian Hindi-language mystery thriller 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 film The 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,[8][9] and it received positive reviews from critics. It has grossed over ₹138.49 crore (US$19 million) worldwide against a production budget of ₹10 crore (US$1.4 million) 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 (Rani’s) revenge has been taken by Yudhishthira (Nirmal).
Cast
Amitabh Bachchan as Badal Gupta
Taapsee Pannu as Naina Sethi
Amrita Singh[12] as Rani Kaur
Tony Luke as Arjun Joseph
Manav Kaul as Jimmy Punjabi (Naina’s lawyer)
Tanveer Ghani as Nirmal “Nimbi” Singh Toor
Denzil Smith as Detective Sodhi
Antonio Aakeel as Sunny Singh Toor
Shome Makhija as Sunil Sethi
Elena Fernandes as Hotel Receptionist
Reviews
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