By Jia D'Souza and Natalia George

Hi there! For this Among Us themed edition we decided to dive into a very popular Bollywood adaptation of the Spanish film Contratiempo, coined Badla. The word “Badla” is a Hindi word that directly translates to revenge, so it’s not difficult to insinuate what the storyline has been weaved around. This 2019 movie was directed by the acclaimed Sujoy Ghosh and starred Bollywood veteran Amitabh Bachchan as well as upcoming actress, Taapsee Pannu.

To make the plot of the movie as concise as possible and without any key spoilers, we took the liberty of copy-pasting the film synopsis straight from Google:

“A young married entrepreneur finds herself in a locked hotel room next to the body of her dead lover. Hoping to find answers, she hires a prestigious lawyer to help her solve the mystery of what really happened.”

The movie is a remake of the Spanish film Contratiempo (The Invisible Guest in English) with some additional flares, by incorporating gender switches as well as Hindu mythology into the mix. With many twists and turns, mirage alternate endings, Badla is easily not your regular simple straight lined story of conflict, climax and resolution.

For those of you who have not yet watched the movie, we have added a list of characters mentioned in this article so that sifting through the various characters becomes easier:

• Badal Gupta: The famous defense advocate hired to assist Naina in her court case
• Naina Sethi : A business woman accused of murder 
• Arjun Joseph: Naina’s secret lover, who police suspect was murdered by Naina 
• Sunny Singh Toor: A young local who has disappeared, his parents suspect Naina of killing him
• Rani Kaur Toor: Sunny’s mother
• Nirmal “Nimbi” Singh Toor: Sunny’s father

It is often said that “revenge is a dish best served cold”, and Badla provides us with the whole dinner table, a delight considering that revenge is a done-to-death theme in movies. The entire plot of Badla revolves around the manifestation of fear. Fear that the antagonists will get caught, fear of death, fear of the truth, and fear of not knowing that truth. Badla takes the idea that not everything is at it seems to another level. This thriller marries the idea of revenge to Indian mythology through the story of the Mahabharata, which Badal Gupta constantly references in his conversations with Naina. Draupadi was a powerful woman in her own right who was often undermined by the Kauravas. Her anger and ambition were taken for granted by the patriarchy until it finally spelled their doom. This draws parallels to the actions of Rani Singh Toor, the mother of the victim in question. Rani is constantly ignored and underestimated as a feeble mother, desperate for closure. However, her drive to tie up loose ends is what eventually ends up in us getting all the answers to the mystery. Rani’s power comes from her unpredictability and as an undiscovered undercurrent, she is a great force to be reckoned with. Badla (and the game for that matter) both remind us not to trust anyone on first impressions because absolute openness eventually means that you will let your guard down, and end up stabbed in the back.

 It is often said that “revenge is a dish best served cold”, and Badla provides us with the whole dinner table

SPOILERS AHEAD

With those of you who are familiar with Among Us, we are sure you know that, to be a successful imposter, you need to be a fairly decent liar and draw any attention away from yourself. It’s important to be wary and come up with a meticulous skeleton of lies to gain the trust of others (Who knew we could make a game this satirical?). Badal Gupta would be adept at carefully fabricating lies and coming up with interesting backstories in Among Us. We were so enraptured by Amitabh Bachchan’s embodiment of the role that we were left confused when he was revealed to be Badal. Frankly, we didn’t know whether to be more horrified or delighted.

The plot was very well developed, we especially loved the fact that we were given so many prospective directions that resulted in the same reality for Arjun and Naina.

Badal Gupta being Nirmal was an exceptional trump card and added so much depth and character development to Sunny’s parents. It was a little shocking to us to see the parents go to such extreme lengths to catch the murderer and although it added spice, it wasn’t really relatable. They seemed to show less grief and more hate.

What stood out to us the most was the fact that from the start of the movie, it was pretty evident that Naina was the murderer but we were still hooked on to the story and the revelation at the ending was exactly what we needed. Furthermore, the movie is dialogue heavy, but it never seems to get boring, and Naina and Badal’s rapport keeps us hooked as it shows us the nuances of the truth.  

 Conventionally, you would expect the male lead to be the conspirator behind the sinister crimes with a supporting femme by his side. But in this case, we were led to believe this until all finally was revealed, piece by piece; that Naina, the proficient businesswoman was the primary antagonist and the driving cause of all the events playing out as they did. The gender swap was quite unpredictable and left us pleasantly surprised.

The mind games battle between “Badal” and Naina, where both of them fabricated parts of the truth to see how trustworthy the other was an amazing addition and added a deeper analytical undertone to an overall simple storyline and took it up another level. In the end, everyone was an impostor in some way or another: Nirmal being Badal, Naina being Arjun’s murderer and an adulteress, Arjun being a lecher and Rani being a simple minded housewife.

However, we felt like this thriller had a slight imbalance between the satisfactory quality of the production and the exuberant quality of the plot. The movie employs the use of flashbacks to progress with the storyline which makes the movie seem longer than it is.  

We personally loved the music. It fit perfectly with the scenes and dialogues, adding to the suspense. The soft, eerie music in the background works perfectly with Bachan’s deep voice. Our hearts were stolen by Rani (Amrita Singh), who translated the pain and emotion felt by an aching mother who will settle for nothing less than justice. 

What the premise of Badla being chosen for this edition’s review eventually boils down to is this: The story intrinsically has “being an impostor” at its core. This applies on so many levels in this movie; Badal Gupta’s entire performance as Naina’s lawyer, leaching information out of her under the guise of being of help, Naina’s display of innocence despite her sinister actions, Rani’s initial portrayal as a stately, feeble woman, everything in this film is built on a bed of lies and misdirection. Even we as audiences feel like impostors, infringing on the secretive, mysterious, and often shocking truths that lie beneath the surface of this film. 

At the end of the day, as dramatized and exorbitant as the film’s storyline is, it’s not too different from the lives we lead, as impostors in various aspects. Never displaying the full truth, showing different parts of our entirety to different people and groups, keeping the rest in the shadows. A bit too cynical? Perhaps. But that’s what keeps society functioning isn’t it? Being an impostor.

Till next time,

Nuts and Chia