Andhadhun – A Liver, Kidney and Eyes Saga!

Star Cast: Ayushmann Khurrana, Radhika Apte, Tabu Fatima Hashmi, Anil Dhawan, and Manav Vij.
Music Composed by Ankit Trivedi, and Raftaar.
Written by Sriram Raghavan, Hemant Rao, Arijit Biswas, Pooja Ladha Surti, and Yogesh Chandekar
Directed by Sriram Raghavan

“Music is like my Liver and Kidney, never know how I will lose them?“

                                                               – Sheikh Imam (The time I .. page no. 173, para no. 2, line no. 1)

The major setback from me these days is the availability of time and effort I have to put in to watch just one movie. The place is becoming increasingly scattered for me to just run like a machine from one spot to another to catch up with all good ones and post about them. Trust me, I am trying. Liver Kasam! Finally, made time to watch Andhadhun, another language film and not Telugu.

First, let’s discuss what works… Rather than keeping many things in suspense and try to make you wait till the end, let me tell you one thing clearly here, I like films that are made with passion no matter what genre or what they are all about. There is a spiritual connection with such films and this Sriram Raghavan delight is one such. When masters do come into form, they do things you least expect them to. Sriram is a master in crafting a dark theme comically or seriously and that is his USP again here.

Tabu, in this film, doesn’t just look the part but is completely believable and very scary. She is the human incarnation of pure evil. Yes, she is evil but the way she gives her character an human touch, again only masters can do that. She doesn’t emote too much as she has to keep it stern and simple. At the same time, she has a knack of producing right expression at the right time without any doubt. She is in the top form here.

Surprisingly, Ayushmann doesn’t wake up in his inner SRK but tries to be himself as Akash and that works better. He is believable in the character and delight to watch. Radhika Apte and the entire cast is too. What is this movie, all about? It is not a movie that tries to preach yet it preaches about the importance of Liver, Kidney, and eyes.

Liver – Tabu’s character is like Liver. We need it to be hail and healthy to be safe. But this cunning organ always throws up a challenge or two by expanding and contracting. It behaves like that sweet friend who is ok with whatever you eat, how much ever you drink and however you look. But then it suddenly starts making it all evident that it is a mask and the acid reflux and damage it can do is life-threatening. You have to be very careful with it. And yes, Tabu here is like that, until a good medical intervention like a bad rabbit comes to stop its play, we are its prey!

Kidney – Ayushmann. Ayushman for this movie is like a Kidney. He flushes out all the bad influences in a twisted manner to accomplish what he finally desires. He is not good, he has been cheating all like a society that says this is a small mistake and this is just a small problem throughout, who is helping the real scum with that attitude. His character by being twisted in his lookout in a way flushes out those people who are really a big threat to society with some goodness still intact. Kidneys don’t have look at everything you take they just have to flush out the waste and at the same time give us warning bells when we are falling into a bad routine that piles up our troubles.

Eyes – The Writers. A total of 4 writers worked on the script. They all made us blindly fall in love with the characters from word go. Each scene and each small character has a purpose to serve. All behave like they are supposed to and even a small boy is crooked in his outlook. There are people like Radhika Apte who attach emotionally with others and trust them. And there are people like Ayushmann who are inherently good but have a twisted logic to reach heights. And then there are people like organ smugglers, low time crooks and pure evil who all appear as good, trustworthy persons at start but end up showing their true colors when put under pressure. Writers like eyes show everything that the brain needs to process at that moment and never let’s mouth to Makeover. After all, the film is all about Showing and not Saying!

Finally, I can tell you this, when Cinderella can be a saga, a twisted take on how society functions today is also one. We cannot escape the reality that we live in. There are people all around who are ready to do anything for you, once they are emotionally attached to you and there are complete crooks who fake it for their own good. As they say in Telugu, Thadi ni Thanne vadu unte Dhani Thala ni Thanne vadu okadu eppudu untadu (If you are smart then there is always a smarter person waiting for you – Tu sher to mein sava sher), we have to be mindful of such people and always attentive as any dark turn can catch our mischief and expose the dark side!

“What is life? Life is a Liver!”

Theatrical Trailer: