Blackout review: Even Vikrant Massey’s brilliance can’t save you from this chaotic, loud and humourless film
Blackout review: The crime caper starts on a promising note but it all goes downhill in the second half of the film. Sadly, nothing works in the film's favour.
Blackout review: I wish I could put my finger on at least one good thing about Blackout. Unfortunately, director Devang Bhavsar’s Blackout is such a half-hearted, half-baked attempt at storytelling that I wonder if my two cents will do it any good. (Also Read: Vikrant on 12th Fail success, baby Vardaan, and upcoming Sabarmati Report: I'm going through a purple patch in my life)
Blackout story
Blackout spans a single night when the streets of Pune are engulfed in darkness due to a blackout in the city. A crime reporter, Lenny D’Souza (Vikrant Massey), is out on the road when his car rams into a van full of cash, gold and dead men. Lenny has a series of bizzare encounters with a homeless alcoholic, Bewdya (Sunil Grover), two thieves Thik and Thak (Karan Sonaware, Saurabh Ghadge) who are big on Instagram followers but low on IQ and a damsel-in-distress Shruti Mehra (Mouni Roy). How Lenny navigates this eventful night would’ve been engaging, if only the story made any sense.
Falls flat on its face
Under the garb of being a dark comedy, Blackout falls flat on its face and ends up being nothing more than a mindless 2-hours-2-minutes long film. A dull screenplay and a meandering storyline are just the icing on top. Blackout is filled with a slew of one-dimensional characters—a crime reporter, a dead boy, a disloyal friend, a disgraced politician, a corrupt cop, a vengeful MLA, a cheating wife, two weird pickpockets, a go-better detective, a mystery woman, and a poetic drunkard. A brilliant Vikrant feels wasted in a movie like this. He puts all his might behind the character, but even he can’t salvage this.
Loud, chaotic and humourless
Despite the potential, the movie is chaotic, loud, and humourless. The supposed crime caper starts on a promising note, the first half of the film even has some interesting twists and turns that keep you intrigued. But the film goes downhill in the second half and the story takes a nosedive. The non-linear narrative fails to keep you invested.
The story Bhavsar co-wrote with Abbas Dalal and Hussain Dalal lacks depth and focus. It wants to say a lot but ends up conveying nothing. At one point in the film, you hear gunshots being fired; it’s never explained why. Some scenes are repetitive, and then more characters (Anant Vijay Joshi, Chhaya Kadam, Jisshu Sengupta, Sooraj Pops, Prasad Oak, and Ruhani Singh) join the already-crowded film.
Even if the cast has potential, the makers should’ve paid heed if they’re relevant to the story. You’d overlook the poor execution if this bunch entertained, they don’t. Sadly, nothing works in the film's favour.
The big reveal
In a flashback, in a final bid to make things exciting, we’re shown how Bewdya has a powerful past. Unfortunately, the big reveal is more boring than the film as a whole. Vikrant received such glory after 12th Fail, he deserved a better movie than this. Blackout is now streaming on JioCinema.