Blind review: Sonam Kapoor, Purab Kohli’s psycho crime thriller is a predictable slow-burn that fails to keep you hooked

1.5/5

Story:
Gia Singh (Sonam Kapoor) is a cop in Scotland. After a mishap involving her stepbrother damages both her eyes, she’s left scarred for life (and this is not just because she loses her sense of sight, but also because of the loss of a dear one). When we meet her next a couple of years later, as she’s lost her job and is trying to come to terms with her day-to-day life as a blind woman living alone in Glasgow with her pet dog Elsa. 

On a fateful night, she happens to cross paths with a psychopath serial killer (Purab Kohli) who’s been hunting single women in the town. Gia reports the incident to the cops who are unwilling to take her seriously but come around later when Prithvi (Vinay Pathak) takes over the case. The film revolves around the cat-and-mouse chase between the psychopath and Gia – who also has battles of her own to fight.

Review:
Shome Makhija’s directorial Blind marks the OTT debut of Sonam Kapoor and also, her comeback of sorts after a hiatus of about four years. Makhija does everything in his capacity to try and make his protagonist shine – be it giving her the maximum screen time and dialogues, situations to portray her acting chops, giving her a proper backstory (at least on paper), or even making her do some action despite her character’s limitations. However, he barely succeeds in doing so owing to an unimaginative and unimpressive script that lacks the conviction to make it even remotely interesting to watch. 

Blind is a psycho-crime thriller based on the 2011 Korean film of the same name. Though we haven’t watched the original, we do get the elements of a typical film in the genre of crime thrillers involving psychopaths. What’s different here is that the protagonist is blind. While that makes for an interesting premise on paper since we’ve not really seen many movies in the same genre in Bollywood, that involve a blind character as the lead. Here, the protagonist is not only blind but also a woman – that may make things more riveting, you’d think, only to be let down by the predictable plotline and treatment in the screenplay. 

There are barely any moments that will make you sit up straight at the edge of your seat, glued to the screen in anticipation of what’s going to happen next. Absolutely nothing is left to the imagination. The long, lingering shots don’t help either and end up stretching the narrative to the point of boredom. Anyway, crime thrillers are almost done to death in the recent past. Despite its predictability, Blind could’ve worked had there been a little urgency in the pace at which the film progresses. Unfortunately, Makhija takes too much time to come to the point which ends up making you restless (for the movie to be over). 

There’s a scene in which Gia has a telephonic conversation with the killer on lose. She tells him all the textbook reasons and traits that make a psychopath and how he’s no different. At this moment we couldn’t help but draw a parallel to the situation at hand – watching a predictable psycho-crime thriller, laced with all the elements of a typical film in the genre with minor variations here and there and still, ending up with a slow burn that tests your patience on multiple occasions. 

While there’s nothing to look forward to in terms of the plot and script, one would assume at least the performances would make up for it, only to be disappointed again. Sonam Kapoor has attempted to be sincere in her portrayal of Gia since this is probably one of the most challenging characters she’s taken up in her career so far, but her act of the blind woman falls short as it’s barely convincing. She occupies most of the frames and gets enough opportunities to impress but fails to deliver in most parts, except for the chase sequence that takes place near a waterfront alley in the dark. Her expressions don’t evoke any emotions and you never really find yourself rooting for her.

Purab Kohli, who is otherwise a fine actor, is completely wasted as the antagonist. He’s barely given any dialogues or back story for the viewers to understand the reason why he is the way he is. In a couple of moments where the actor gets the chance, he tries to do his best to uplift an otherwise boring screenplay. What makes psychopaths interesting is the motive/reason behind their actions. There’s no attempt by the makers to delve into the finer aspects of his character – both in the manner in which it is written and performed – is quite superficial. 

The only person who seems to be having a little bit of fun here is Vinay Pathak as the investigating cop Prithvi who loves to gorge on Chinese take-out and junk food throughout his screentime. He has little to do, but he manages to make the most of his limited screen time. Lillete Dubey doesn’t really have much to do here but she delivers in the limited scenes attributed to her. Shubham Saraf as the eyewitness Nikhil does a fair job.

Verdict:
If you’d really like to watch a crime thriller involving a disabled protagonist, we suggest you check out Mike Flanagan’s directorial Hush (2016) starring Kate Siegel as the lead. Shome Makhija’s Blind is easily passable unless you are a fan of Sonam Kapoor and have been waiting to watch her on screen. 

(All images, unless mentioned otherwise, via YouTube/Screengrab)