Blind is incredibly mediocre thriller

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An Indian police officer in Glasgow, Gia Singh (Sonam Kapoor Ahuja) picks up her stubborn ‘brother’, Adrian (Danish Razvi) from a pub where he has gone for a music concert of his idol and, on the orders of their ‘mother’ (Lillette Dubey) tries to bring him home so that he can study for his examinations the following day. When he wants to break free, she handcuffs him inside her police vehicle but he still struggles to control the car. An accident takes place. Gia is injured and loses her vision, while Adrian is killed as a speeding car runs over him as he lies handcuffed on the road.

Gia is now no longer in service and spends her time living alone (minus maids and cooks as in typically illogical Hindi thrillers), only with a faithful female canine, Elsa, who also becomes her guide of sorts. She is summoned by her ‘mother’ (the head of the orphanage that raised Gia and Adrian, who have actually been only fellow inmates.

Gia stubbornly refuses a drop back and is offered a ride by a man (Purab Kohli) who we later come to know is a gynecologist in a local hospital, pretending that he runs a cab. She hears knocks inside the car and the policewoman within her suspects that he has locked someone in the boot. He also tries to force her to drink a bottle of water and after the knocks come, attempts to conceal their sound (!!) with loud music. With great difficulty, Gia escapes.

Soon, it is heard on the news that a woman, Mia Wallace (Elin Erkin) is missing from the same precinct from that very time. Gia goes to the cops, and is not taken seriously, when by pure intelligent deduction, she gives a description of the possible kidnapper. An Indian young man, Nikhil (Subham Saraf) also comes forward to the cops when he sees a ‘Missing’ poster of the woman as he has seen the car from a bridge. By one of those coincidences only possible in such a Hindi film (there have been quite a few of these in the last five years or so!), even the investigating cop, Prithvi (Vinay Pathak) and his immediate boss (Javed Khan) are also Indians!

But this ‘Indian’ excess’ is by no means the sole absurdity in the story. The villain is a psychopath prone to hurt women because of a past trauma involving his mother, and has kidnapped not just one but two women who are strapped in a “torture” chamber” in his palatial home—clearly he too has no maids, cooks or staff!

We also observe that he soon comes to know both the identity and phone numbers of both Gia and the boy and begins stalking them on phone and in person. He even tries to kill the boy. His only identification for the cops is his car, a rare and discontinued Chrysler model (in-film advertising?) model identified by Nikhil, and when the cops narrow down on him, he becomes desperate enough to try and eliminate Prithvi as well as the other two.

Of course, the cops, who can trace the current locations of Gia’s and the boy’s phones whenever they want, cannot similarly trace the locations and identity of the villain, who keeps calling Gia and Nikhil! And weirdly, the psychopath is even present by a whopper coincidence in the police station when the boy has come as a witness and Gia too is present! How does he know this would happen?? And how does he overhear what is being said inside the cop’s cabin?

Having not watched the original Korean film, I am sure that the treatment there must have been much superior and logical—the 2011 film cannot possibly have been as addle-pated as this one is. It has even got a few awards.

Saddled by a mediocre script, the director too cannot do much and everything in the film is below par, such as the horrendous Hindi and English songs and the functional background score. We even have a female background song going on while the psychopath is fighting with a cop and is in the process of killing him!

The performances too are functional. Sonam Kapoor Ahuja, back on screen after a long time, is good though as the blind protagonist. Purab Kohli as the villain tries his best Prem Chopra act, complete with slimy expressions. Vinay Pathak, Lillette Dubey, Shubham Saraf and the rest go through the motions.

Rating: **

Jio Cinema presents Jio Studios, Kanai, Lead Films, RV Motion Pictures, AVMA & Kross Pictures’ Blind  Produced by: Sujoy Ghosh, Avishek Ghosh, Hyunwoo Thomas Kim, Sachin Nahar, Pinkesh Nahar and Manish W. Directed by: Shome Makhija Written by: Choi Min-seok, Shome Makhija & Sudeep Nigam Music: Clinton Cerejo & Bianca Gomes Starring: Sonam Kapoor Ahuja, Vinay Pathak, Purab Kohli, Shubham Saraf, Lucy Aarden, Javed Khan, Jason Hetherington, Tara Kirsty, Erin Elkin, Gurjee Zayd, Kristy Quinn, Lillette Dubey Sp. App.: Danish Razvi & others