Badlapur***

Dir:  Sriram Raghavan

Starring: Varun Dhawan, Nawazuddin Siddiqui, Huma Qureshi, Yami Gautam, Divya Dutta, Radhika Apte, Vinay Pathak

This dark, violent neo-noir revenge tale has an absolute crackerjack first half that will keep you riveted to your seat, keep springing surprises at you and keep you constantly guessing what’s going to happen next.

The second half isn’t quite as good with its variable pacing and plot contrivances though it still manages to keep some twists coming. Overall, the movie will keep you watching till the end though the dark territories it ventures into will make it difficult viewing for some.

The movie also raises some moral ambiguities though it isn’t quite ready to explore them fully.

Director Sriram Raghavan redeems himself after the nonsensical Agent Vinod and his cast gives him more than able support. Varun Dhawan is mostly convincing (there are moments - though only a few - when his performance borders on the mere functional) in his transformation from sweet, loving husband to a man with a darkness in his heart gnawing at him.

As his nemesis, Nawazuddin Siddiqui is (as usual) flat out brilliant, bringing many a shade to a character which could have been purely one note. Siddiqui is a chameleon, able to pull off any type of role and he automatically elevates any film that he is in. Huma Qureshi, Yami Gautam, Radhika Apte and Vinay Pathak are all stellar as is Divya Dutta, one of my favourite supporting Mollywood actresses.

It is one of the movie’s strengths that it manages to turn almost every character in the movie into a person rather than just a plot device and the strength of the supporting cast helps to pull that off.

Cut to chase: Different and dark but won’t be to everybody’s taste.