Blind (2023) Review!!

Synopsis – When a twist of fate leaves Gia blind, she must summon every ounce of courage to rebuild her life. But when she becomes the sole witness to a heinous crime, she unwittingly enters a deadly game of cat and mouse with a dangerous criminal.

My Take – Give it to South Korean filmmakers to create the most effective thrillers on psychopaths and serial killers. Indeed, that is why their works have been a source of inspiration for most Indian filmmakers especially over the past decade. Albeit to mixed results.

This latest Jio Cinema release, hailed as Sonam Kapoor‘s return to the screen after a four year hiatus, is too a remake, of a 2011 Korean film of the same name, and was earlier the influence behind the Tamil-language thriller Netrikann (2021), starring Nayanthara and Ajmal Ameer, that released to decent reception.

However, though director Shome Makhija has had plenty of experience in dealing with thrillers before in the form of Kahaani 2: Durga Rani Singh (2016), Te3n (2016) and Badla (2019), as an assistant director, this time around he is unable to deliver an edgy thriller, instead choosing to do more of a replication job than anything else.

Even, with its potential and the advantage of drawing from the source material, the screenplay is a drab, lacks thrill and doesn’t remit any adrenaline rush. Instead, we only stumble along with a struggling narrative that yearns for greater attention and nuance. And while Sonam Kapoor tries hard to do justice to a difficult part, there is only much she can do.

The story follows Gia Singh (Sonam Kapoor), a young cop in Glasgow, who loses her eye sight in an accident that also took the life of her foster brother, Adrian (Danesh Razvi), leaving her with a constant grief to deal with. Now living with her seeing-eye dog named Elsa, Gia does her mundane household chores every day, taking an effort to gather her life and put its broken pieces together.

However, things take a drastic turn for her on a fateful night, when upon returning from the orphanage she grew up in following her meet with Maria Aunty (Lillette Dubey) the loving woman who raised her, Gia finds herself in a taxi being driven by a man claiming to be the driver (Purab Kohli). Upon sensing that that the driver is hiding something in the boot of his car, Gia confronts him, but to no avail. With the driver dumping her aside and getting away before she raises a commotion.

Believing that the driver is the man responsible for the recent missing cases in the area, Gia heads to the police station and reports the incident, particularly to Prithvi Khanna (Vinay Pathak), the inspector assigned to the case, who despite her disability sees her talents and believes her. What ensues next is a cat-and-mouse game between Gia and the mysterious predator.

Simply told, the remake is a serviceable, frill-free adaptation that might work for those who have not seen the original. This could have been a respectable thriller, but there is zero chill factor here. Though some scenes have been staged well and executed nicely, especially particularly a chase sequence, it overall lacks a palpable sense of danger needed for the thriller to work.

The screenplay tries too hard to ingest elements of thrill and mystery, but together, they all fail to evoke a sense of fear or panic. The blood and gore are dialed down to rob the film of the chill factor, and the blind protagonist is never put in a place of pure concern for the viewer to feel apprehensive about her situation.

Even the mind games between the driver and Gia should have been written better, so as to justify Gia’s claim that this is a battle only between her and him. More importantly, the driver himself never comes across as terrifying. The abrupt cuts to the dingy room where he retains the kidnapped girls and some random shots of him abusing them are run down by the so-so execution.

And while the film tries to add on some emotional factors like the bond of a chosen family, hope and the ability to overcome disability to fight against evil, these sentiments never hit hard as they are supposed to. For instance, there’s another eyewitness to the missing girls’ case, Nikhil (Shubham Saraf), who is the same age as Adrian. Over time, the jagged relationship between Giah and Nikhil matures into an understanding and empathetic one. But the film never fully flushes out their connection effectively.

Performance wise, Sonam Kapoor brings freshness to her character, shows restrain balancing the chaos around her and ends up being a likeable character. Plus, she seems to have put in a lot of effort in getting the mannerism of a blind person right. Yet, the script never offers her the padding to make things work. Purab Kohli tries his level best to make his killer look as tempting as possible. But what can even he do if the foundation itself is weak in his department. He ends up looking like a caricature and nothing more.

Vinay Pathak is earnest in his role and provides the film the much needed humor. Shubham Saraf too is sincere in his role and for whatever screen time he gets, he keeps you invested. Lillete Dubey and Danesh Razvi are alright in small roles. On the whole, ‘Blind’ is a serviceable thriller that struggles to engage and entertain.