Voxitype Good films always raise compelling questions, whether the format is fiction or documentary fact.

Senteur As somebody who had not heard any of this before, it became a curious phenomenon to sit and watch a film and slowly have the realities begin to click into place.

InformationRap This is one of the few movies I've ever seen where the whole audience broke into spontaneous, loud applause a third of the way in.

Justina The film never slows down or bores, plunging from one harrowing sequence to the next.

namashi_1 Abhinay Deo's 'Blackmail' has an interesting premise, that sadly never turns into an entirely interesting, wholesome noir-comedy, that only works in bits & pieces. Despite complete support from its cast, the film remains untapped in its potential.'Blackmail' Synopsis: When Dev finds out his wife is cheating on him, he secretly blackmails his wife and her lover as a form of revenge.'Blackmail' is the same old story of a husband's wrath on his wife after he finds out she's cheating on him. The twist here is the blackmail angle & how the protagonist literally turns things up, side, down for his wife & lover. 'Blackmail' is twisty tale of dark characters, who have very few redeeming qualities & will go to any length to their share of money. All of this appeals in the beginning, but as the film progresses & the blackmailing doesn't remain only one person hands, the story begins to fizzle out. Too much happens & very little actually works. Though the dark humor does get laugh out of you, its continuous act one blackmail after the other, wear you off. In short, 'Blackmail' engages in parts, not entirely! Parveez Shaikh's Screenplay is alright. Abhinay Deo's Direction is fine. Cinematography & Editing are standard. Performance-Wise: Irrfan, as always, is highly commendable. As the husband out for sadistic revenge, Irrfan doesn't miss a single beat. Arunoday Singh springs a pleasant surprise. The actor shines as the calculative yet dumb lover, who also flexes his gift for comic-timing here. Kirti Kulhari as the wife in trouble, is perfectly cast. She looks beautiful as well. Divya Dutta is deliciously wicked as Arunoday's wife, delivering a delightful turn, despite limited screen-time. Pradhuman Singh Mall overdoes it in his part. Omi Vaidya is fair. Anuja Sathe is fantastic.On the whole, 'Blackmail' is only partly engaging.

Steven Rodrigues Who watches indian movies these days? Not many given the usual crop of lame "star-studded" blockbusters are directed towards numb-skulled audiences. Well if you enjoy intellectual movies with good plotlines and dark comedy then Blackmail is one hell of a gem for 2018.The movie has one the best flow, sequencing, timing, casting and acting seen in recent times. It dwells on the topic of adultery which is increasingly plaguing indian society killing especially middle working class men stuck with entitled two-timing wives. The movie explores one such middle class man played by the superb Irfan Khan who is left extremely heartbroken when he returns home and sees the pretty wife he admires sleeping around with a rich brat. Kirti Kulhari portrays the classic callous indian gold-digger cheating wife who's ruined a man's life by marrying him only because her lover ditched her at the time and who continues a lifeless marriage despite hating her husband for not being rich. It's no surprise though that every man watching would love to commit adultery with the lovely Kirti.There's great performances from Omi Vaidya, Arunoday Singh and Divya Dutta as well. This is a must watch for the engrossing brilliant comic timing and plot twists. The movie has a fantastic climax (no pun intended) with an underlying moral knockout punch - adultery will leave you nowhere other than ruined!

Prashast Singh BLACKMAIL has been recently released on Prime Video a few days ago. I always wanted to watch it since the trailer was very impressive. Today, as I started watching it, I couldn't just stop myself! There were a lot of great things in the film to appreciate, and it deserved a better response.The film is full of twists and turns, and you just can't trust anybody. It's not a mystery, but always makes you await the end. This unpredictability serves as a major plus for a film which doesn't engage in any big-budget spectacle or repeated Bollywood style musical numbers. There are plenty of funny action scenes too, and as a whole, the film has something for everyone.Irrfan does an outstanding job in the role of a common man. Kirti is decent. Arunoday Singh entertains with his comic antics. Omi's act is completely hilarious. Other actors too put up brilliant performances. Technical aspects are decent. The music is good. Action is neatly executed. Director Abhinay Deo has done a brilliant job.BLACKMAIL is blackly funny and twisted to the core. The climax has been executed very impressively. Don't miss this movie at any cost if you want a real tightly scripted entertainer.

binducherungath Abhinay Deo's Blackmail, a black comedy film, does not turn out to be a promising film. Abhinav Deo's Delhi Belly had become a box-office hit. He has tried the same genre in this film as well, but the film picks up only at certain shots. Irrfan Khan is a great actor and he generally brings his punches to the characters he plays on screen. But in blackmail, even his punches were missing in most of the places, could be due to the screenplay. The premise of the film is interesting that when a husband accidentally discovers his wife having an affair, how he deals with the same? Instead of confronting with his wife, he chooses to blackmail her. How does this blackmail impact his wife, wife's boyfriend and how do they respond back is shown in rest of the film. Rather the trailer revealed the flow of the film. The film suffers from repetition syndrome. The initial parts of the film seemed interesting. Dev (Irrfan Khan) is trapped in his mundane routine. He prefers to play games on computer in office till late evenings rather than going back home to his loveless marriage. His wife Reena (Kriti Kulhari) is shown to be very detached towards Dev and she is just bothered to know whether Dev paid the TV bill or not. Dev has a list of his expenses written viz. loan emi, bills etc. Dev wished sincerely that his relationship with Reena improves. So, one day, he decided to surprise his wife by reaching home early and that is when he finds his wife in bed with her lover Ranjeet (Arunodaya Singh). Dev decides to blackmail Ranjeet.Rest of the film is all about how the events unfold when Dev starts the blackmailing. Dev's blackmailing leads to a series of blackmails. It gets very repetitive and the film starts suffering as far as the content, pace, dialogues etc. are concerned. The subplots seemed forced. Irrfan Khan and Arunodya Singh rescue the film from being a boring one. Divya Dutt has done justice to her role, but her role itself seemed absolutely out of place in the film. Kriti is ok. The subplots involving Dev's boss Omi Vaidya's plans to capture the .market for toilet rolls did not add magic to the film. It is sad that Urmila Matondkar's item song is absolutely forgettable. Abhinav Deo's Blackmail suffers from repetition syndrome. Irrfan and Arunodaya do add value to the film with their presence. The premise of the film is interesting but it does not pick up.