Blind (JioCinema)
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 self-willed 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 is 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?
