Nilanjan
Vishal Bharadwaj’s spy thriller Khufiya is based on the novel ‘Escape to Nowhere’ written by former intelligence officer Amar Bhushan. The movie gets into a zone where Vishal seemingly loses control of the narrative, especially after the interval and what could have been a Hollywood-style real-life espionage thriller becomes little bit drab and dull at places. I guess the director would have thought several times before wading into the territory a few years ago. We can only guess what prompted him to choose a spy thriller for his latest movie but that’s not the topic of our article.
The Plot
Krishna Mehta, played by Tabu, is known for her razor-sharp intelligence. She smells a rat that someone in India’s intelligence department has leaked crucial information to the enemy state. The person must be captured before it is too late and Krishna plans to trap the traitor. Given the director’s penchant for peeling off the layers of mysteries and that too in a uniquely memorable way, I was most expecting too much from Tabu, Fazal starring Khufiya.
The plot revolves around how the Mole is wiped out. How the top-tier spies work by tracking suspects, planting secret cams in suspects’ homes, carrying out their actions silently, passing the batons to the other on a high-profile mission – everything is detailed in the film though these are not new to the audiences who regularly watch Hollywood espionage movies. Still these things keep us engaged. Furthermore, without these, it is hardly possible to create and accelerate the tension.
These spies live double or if needed, triple lives through cross-border intermingling, offering us a glimpse into their precarious living. These things are more convincingly portrayed with the creation of a Bangladeshi operative played by Azmeri Haque Badhon who can remind the history buffs of beautiful Mata Hari’s character, especially after how convincingly she gets in Krishna’s personal and professional life. The camera also captures the nice bonding between Krishna’s ex-husband and their teenage son. Another strong mother-son relationship between chief suspect Ravi Mohan and his mother is beautifully portrayed.
Mohan’s wife Charu (Wamiqa Gabbi) shares an emotional bond with their young son. All these give the movie an emotional tint, exposing the soft, vulnerable side of those who are forced to be rough and tough in their professional lives.
Criticism
I was specially looking for how the director manages to keep the strings of tension alive till the end, given the fact that multiple characters have some closely safeguarded secrets. Unfortunately, despite pin-drops-silence performance by Tabu, the X factor that keeps spy thriller fans on the edge is conspicuously missing. Vishal has been a perfectionist in creating the right ambiance for a thriller and also sprinkling humours throughout the plot without disturbing the narrative flow. These Vishal signatures cannot go unnoticed in Khufiya, though the movie fails to impress and gets a moderate rating.
In the second half, the movie feels slack and somehow fails to latch to a gripping story that the director built up before interval. Mohan hides out in snow-covered South Dakota and keeps waiting. Such things are not new to Mohan as these are a part and parcel of a spy’s life. However, Mohan’s family is also with him and shares the physical pain and mental agony. At some places, dangers, death are intertwined with the lashes of humour, which gives a certain lift to the movie but that’s not enough to keep audience hooked to the screen.
Tabu stands out. Audience always expect a lot from her and she never disappoints. She still can give more to the fledgling, plot-anaemic Bollywood industry. And we just want to see Vishal finding back his Midas touch that could turn even a dull thing into gold.
