Blind Review: Jio Cinema’s latest movie stars Sonam Kapoor Ahuja as Gia Singh, Vinay Pathak as Prithvi, Purab Kohli as The Driver, Shubham Saraf as Nikhil, and others. The crime thriller, which Shome Makhija directed, is a remake of the same-titled 2011 Korean film. Gairik Sarkar is the cinematographer, and Tanupriya Sharma is the film’s editor. Clinton Cerejo and Brianna Gomes composed the music. The runtime is 129 minutes.
Blind Review Contains No Spoilers
Blind Review: Plot Summary
In Jio Cinema’s Blind (2023) movie, Gia Singh is a cop in Glasgow, Scotland. One night, she forcefully takes her brother Adrian home from a concert as he has an exam the next day. Her brother tries to get out of the car, so she handcuffs him to the handle. On their way home, Adrian tries to get his hands on the keys, and the siblings push each other while Gia is still driving. Suddenly, their car meets an accident, and the glass enters Gia’s eyes. Adrian, who is handcuffed to the car, gets crushed under another passing car, leading to his death.
Three years later, Gia is no longer a cop; she lives alone in her apartment with her dog Elsa and has lost her eyesight. One night, after she visits her mom, Gia takes a taxi home. Suddenly, someone in the car’s boot starts knocking, making Gia suspicious of the Driver. She tries to call the cops, but the Driver pushes her and drives away. Gia informs the cops about what happened, linking it to the case of missing girls in Glasgow. Capturing the serial killer becomes the only big purpose of Gia’s life.
Blind Movie Review: Discussion
In the first 15 minutes, seeing Gia fight with her brother while being behind the wheel convinced me she would give me many facepalm moments. The screenplay is tedious and takes forever to make a point. Purab Kohli plays the serial killer, The Driver, but all we see is him scaring the girls. So much time is spent devising a plan to capture the killer, who only makes a guest appearance and offers nothing.
Along with Gia, another witness helps the cop chase the killer. But they all struggle. The entire investigation being led by Prithvi has no base. The Driver openly commits his crime in a city like Glasgow without trying to be cautious. Are there no CCTV cameras? If he’s a serial killer responsible for kidnapping and killing several girls, why was it never in the news before? The movie doesn’t intend to answer anything. It only wants you to get “intrigued” by what the characters tell us.
Gia blames herself for her brother’s death and makes catching the killer her “moral mission”. The killer calls Gia and tells her they’re the same because they’ve been responsible for other people’s deaths. Is the killer so desperate to find himself a nemesis that he chose a girl he met only once? How do you believe there’s a connection between the two when it wasn’t initiated or hinted at even once? Casually throwing these big, typical dialogues around doesn’t elevate the narrative.
In a scene, Gia and her mom talk about God, as the former is upset with God for taking away whatever she loves. The conversation would’ve made sense if it were a horror movie where some supreme power would’ve helped Gia in the end. Here, it was just a waste of time. The long pauses and sluggish dialogue were already slowing the story’s pace.
Blind on Jio Cinema becomes more frivolous in the last 30 minutes. From Prithvi’s mindless interrogation to Gia and Nikhil’s bizarre conversation, these “serious” sequences made me laugh. The showdown between Gia and the Driver feels like Sonam and Purab are done with the film. The last scene featuring Gia brings the worst out of Sonam as an actor. She fails to make the anger look believable.
Also Read: Sweet Kaaram Coffee Review: Trip of Escapism Turns Into Life-Altering Experience
Sonam Kapoor Ahuja’s performance as a visually impaired person isn’t convincing, as she doesn’t even use the cane properly. Kapoor uses it like a prop, a briefing she must’ve had about what her character will be carrying most of the time. In one scene, she runs upstairs quite fast and with no support, thus forgetting for a few seconds that she can’t see.
Purab Kohli is wasted in the movie. He’s a serial killer but never shown as one. His act of scaring the tied-up girls is terribly acted and shot. The director never tells us why the killer is the way he is. Even if he kills for pleasure, they should’ve shown his brutal behaviour. On a phone call, Sonam briefs him on why he’s a killer. The reasons include – he must’ve had a terrible childhood, his mother wasn’t treated well, he had an emotionally unavailable family and many more such textbook explanations. The makers thought that justification was enough to tell the viewer why he’s a serial killer and didn’t make any effort to add any arc or depth to Purab’s character.
The constant close-up shot of Sonam’s ear bothered me after a point. Gairik Sarkar’s lens does a good job of capturing the eeriness of Glasgow’s dark lanes. But every shot of Purab looks very awkward.
Blind Review: Final Thoughts
Overall, Sonam Kapoor Ahuja struggles to act convincingly and chase a serial killer with no purpose. We just have to accept that he’s a killer and Gia’s moral mission. The makers chose a city like Glasgow with such a melancholic appeal and could’ve treated us to a solid crime thriller. However, what I enjoyed the most were the songs, which were mostly in English.
The movie is now streaming on Jio Cinema.