When you put #NeenaGupta and #SanjayMishra together, you get an astounding 60 years of acting experience and it shows like how ! That alone is perhaps enough reason to watch #Vadh now streaming on #Netflix. #Mishra in particular is absolutely fantastic as he sheds his goofy, funny bones to deliver serious acting heft in this slow, poignant, murder thriller.
Writer duo #RajeevBarnwal and #JaspalSinghSandhu put together a crime thriller with shades of #Drishyam where the police know who committed the murder but have no shred of evidence to go after the perpetrators. But then retired school master Shambhunath Mishra (#SanjayMishra) and his wife Manju (#NeenaGupta) are no George Kutty to bluff their way through. They are a hapless couple living in Gwalior ; their estranged son is in Americas and their only joy life in life is the weekly trip to the internet centre on a rickshaw where ot get to speak to their son on a video call. They have taken loans for their son’s education and career and are harassed by local money lender Prajapati Pandey (#SaurabhSachdeva). In addition, there is the local cunning cop (#ManavVij) who pursues them.
Pandey brings chicken, alcohol and women into the couple's strictly vegetarian household and abuses their dwelling forcing them to clean up afterwards. One night, things go out of hand and Pandey is murdered by Mishra. The rest of the film captures how the couple fight their way out with backs to the wall and an interesting twist at the end leads to the end of the story.
So much for the slow burn thriller. You get to understand the reason why it is called Vadh and not Hathya or Khoon. The premise is not new but yet interesting; the acting is brilliant and the treatment has merit. Mishra takes the movie to a new high and Gupta does full justice to her under-developed role.
The problem with Vadh though is that this is an underwritten script that sets up a premise but fizzles out all too soon. The investigation is too simple and the ending is half-baked. In an age where scripts are much more layered, editing is standout non-linear and character development is much more subtle, the problem with Vadh is that it belongs to an earlier era. The couple’s perspective to killing is tabled with their approach to the mouse trap. Manju is repulsed with the idea of a living being being killed under the same roof. The chopping up of the body and the crushing of the bones in the grinder remind you of the Shradha Walker murder in Delhi recently. Has the movie been firmed up to catch a topical theme ? Doesn't do justice to the stand-alone inherent strength of the narrative!
#SapanNarula’s camera work stands out, especially for the Gwalior locales. I wish the investigation work could have been more nuanced and the role of Manju could have been more nuanced. The in-your-face rudeness of the son and the blatant selfishness of the neighbour hark back to the nineties when the script spelt out ‘A for apple’ and left nothing to either imagination or intellect!
Watch #Vadh to see why Gupta and Mishra are thespians of their craft. The rest of the plot does not stay with you too long !
