You are better off not watching Blind, warns Mayur Sanap.
In her introductory shot in Blind, we see Sonam Kapoor's tough cop Gia inside a firing range facility with her stern sight on a projectile as she shoots a bullseye.
The story is set in Glasgow and we get a sense of Gia's no-nonsense personality quite early on.
A few moments later, she gets involved in a horrific car accident that kills her younger brother and leaves her visionless.
Gia blames herself for her brother's death which continues to haunt her every now and then, but she learns to carry on with her lonesome life as blind person.
On the other hand, a psychopath (Purab Kohli) is on the loose in the same Scottish city who abducts and tortures women for kinks.
These are the two distinct stories of two different people that collide with each other and merge into one.
As Gia unwittingly catches a whiff of a crime, she saves herself after a close shave with the kidnapper. But since he knows who she is, a cat-and-mouse game ensues as she becomes his next target.
It's a fantastic premise, which Blind borrows from the 2011 Korean film of the same name that also inspired Nayanthara's 2021 Tamil film Netrikann.
Sadly, under debutant Shome Makhija's skimpy writing and direction, this Hindi remake falls considerably short to warrant a riveting watch.
A woman-in-peril is not a novel premise by any stretch of imagination. Be it Taapsee Pannu's Game Over (2019), Rani Mukerji's Mardaani 2 (2019), Amala Paul's Aadai (2019) or Kate Seigel's Hush (2016), many films have played around this theme quite efficiently. What makes this idea work usually is the central hook point on which the entire film is based.
In Makhija's Blind, the writing is just not strong enough to make for an engrossing drama. The film proceeds as a slow burn as we understand the various personality quirks of these two characters but the pace slackens too often and at too many places without a proper payoff.
We see muddled action and anti-climactic sequences that fail to intrigue.
Scenes where the film emphasises the creepiness of the kidnapper are arbitrarily defined and instead of conjuring up real terror, they feel flat.
It also does not help that Makhija's screenplay is riddled with plot contrivances just to add shock value to the proceedings.
Kidnapper wants to trick a character? The streets are completely barren
Kidnapper wants to chase a character? The bylanes are all empty.
Kidnapper wants to kill a character? The parking lot is already deserted.
His bare face is also not a problem because apparently, surveillance cameras don't exist in this universe.
To top it all, the cops are shown to be so incompetent that even Sonam's pet dog looks exasperated (this dog, by the way, gets credit in the end roll).
The fatal flaw of this film is that, for a thriller, it just doesn't have any real moments of suspense. What we do get is the tediously written, sporadic confrontations between Sonam and Purab that feel more unintentionally funny than chilling.
Moreover, it is never fully explained why Purab's character commits these grisly crimes, nor do we get any backstory for his sadomasochistic behaviour. This relegates him to a mere character trope than an actual unhinged person with motives.
The supposedly nail-biting showdown in the finale is so poorly staged that it robs the climax of any real impact.
To the director's credit, though, the film doesn't get carried away with its depiction of violence which is usually the case in this genre. Here, the brutality is more implied than explicitly shown.
Sonam Kapoor returns to the screen after four years in a rather unconventional role.
Hers is a complex character that requires a certain physicality and emotional range, and she shows surprising spunk in both departments, at least in the initial portions. As the plot advances, her performance is bogged down by middling script and the actress can't rise above the written material.
Purab Kohli's portrayal of a creepy psychopath feels more performative and self-aware. The actor does put in his best efforts, but again, his performance is stifled by the film's writing.
In the supporting cast, Vinay Pathak, as the perpetually hungry cop, is presented as comedic relief which only hinders the serious narrative.
Shubham Saraf (A Suitable Boy) is delightful as the young punk who agrees to help Gia and shares a tender bond with her.
Lilette Dubey, as a mother figure to Sonam's character, is wasted in an oddly written role.
In the end, like any film with good source material, you wonder how much better the experience would have been had it been done a little differently. Alas, with barely anything noteworthy in sight, Blind is a film you are better off not watching.
Blind streams on JioCinema.
