Blind Is Not Half A Bland As Expected

Blind(JioCinema)

Rating: ** ½

Okay,so  first things first. Blind is  remake of a Korean film. It is not  the first Indian  remake  of   the 2011 film. In 2021  there was  a Tamil version Netrikann. Prior to that, there was a Chinese and  Japanese  version as well.

This is to say, Blind is  popular  subject for remakes. The Hindi one just out on the free-for-all JioCinema platform, is  not as powerful as  Netrikann.  But I must say Sonam Kapoor Ahuja   looks as pretty playing blind as Nayanthara in the  original.

The  underrated Purab Kohli  is the serial killer on the prowl. Not  enough  bite to his  bark.There is so much barking going on,what with a  friendly canine playing a pivotal role. The  plot has  a few heartstopping moments of suspense especially when the killer gives the blind heroine  a ride on a car where he has a dead woman in the trunk.

Sonam  Kapoor gives a pleasantly  undramatic  performance.  No fluttering  of eyelashes and  falling over furniture in her own home…far from it! In fact she  takes on the villain one-on-one  in a climax that would have been edge-of-the-seat had it not already been done in Tamil before(not to mention Japanese and  Chinese).

In spite of the repetitive pattern, Blind gets you invested, if  only partially .Sonam’s  character, though  blind, is so selfwilled and determined to bring the killer to book, you feel  like  cheering her on. She is Everywoman who ever wanted to stand on  her own feet, and never mind the impaired  vision.

I wanted to see more of the mother-daughter tension between Sonam and Lillete Dubey who is such a  fine actress. Why isn’t she seen  more often?

And yes, a warm welcome back to Vinay Pathak who plays the constantly eating  helpful cop.  The plot i  filled with predictable prototypes, people  who are there  saliently to  simulate  an aura  of foreboding and suspense, and not necessarily to serve  any organic function in the plot.

The attempt to  inject a hint of a romance between the  heroine  Gia  and  an eyewitness Nikhil(Shubham Saraf, seen to advantage in Mira Nair’s A Suitable Boy and Shantaram)   didn’t  work for me.Luckily, they don’t  burst into a love-is-blind kind of  duet.

The music, by the way, is  very strange.  Would  director Sujoy Ghosh please explain why we need  angrezi songs in a  Hindi film,and that too awful ones?

Like the other recent suspense thriller Sergeant , Blind too is shoot in the UK, Glasgow  we are  told. Both JioCinema productions. Must have  got  bulk bookings and discounts shooting for both. But a Hindi remake of a Korean  film shot in Glasgow…does it  make  any sense?