Blackmail Movie Review: Convenient writing lets down this tepid thriller

Often, self-aware films that only aim to be ‘popcorn entertainment’ are not intense with their storyline or characterisation. Instead, they focus on creating eye-catching visuals and isolated engaging sequences instead. However, what happens when a film sets the bar for itself as a serious thriller and fails to reach that bar? Blackmail is an example of one such film.

Director: Mu Maran

Cast: GV Prakash Kumar, Srikanth, Ramesh Thilak, Bindhu Madhavi, Teju Ashwini

The good thing about Blackmail is that it stays faithful to its title, with the entire story being focused on a family held hostage. Unfortunately, the film over employs the use of blackmail to the point of exhaustion. At the centre of it all is not the protagonist GV Prakash Kumar's character, Mani, but rather Ashok, played by Srikanth. Ashok is a rich man whose daughter Anu is repeatedly kidnapped by criminals who demand money from Ashok. Right from the get-go, the kidnapping doesn't happen due to extraordinary planning. It happens due to a mixture of neglect and luck. In the first scene, Ashok is driving a car up the hill, with Anu in the backseat. After a planned accident is executed, the kidnappers are left dumbfounded after the child runs away from the car to chase a balloon. The parents also leave the place without checking if Anu is in the backseat. Due to this, Anu is then kidnapped by a group. And that is just two of the ten kidnappings that follow.

The string of kidnappings happens due to a number of writing conveniences and not through organic plot progression. Mani kidnaps Ashok's child, but Ashok later joins hands with Mani, only because he sympathises with Mani, because his girlfriend Reka was kidnapped by some thugs. But to make things more complicated, Reka was also held hostage by Ashok. At some point in time, Mani's boss gets hold of Anu, only because another kidnapper, who meticulously kidnaps Anu, is careless enough to leave Anu at a public spot, who is then captured by a henchman for Mani's boss. The film suffers from such lacklustre writing choices.

The film also suffers from the presence of certain regressive ideologies. In the beginning, Reka, who is revealed to be pregnant, wants to get an abortion. But what results in two intertwined conversations, in which Reka is told that being pregnant is a gift, and that Reka should be happy with that. Now, one can only speculate if Reka's pregnancy was added to increase the stakes for the story or if it was added to reflect the director's views on abortion. But in the end, the film reflects a world where women have limited agency. In another scene, a couple of trans people are being pursued by Mani, who suspects that they have kidnapped Anu. Now, the trans people stand up for themselves, through dialogues, written to clear the prejudices they face. But this particular scene is preceded by an "item number", which shows those trans people in the same stereotypical manner.

Blackmail tries to be a serious film with a layered story. It has enough characters with distinct personalities for us to remember them. But the writing pulls the rug from underneath every ambition it has. The only grace that the film offers can be its inadvertent humour, the pinnacle of which happens to be a very distracting fake beard on Ramesh Thilak.