“Talvar” Movie Review – Bollywood Bubble

Directed by: Meghna Gulzar
Produced by: Vineet Jain, Vishal Bhardwaj
Cast: Irrfan Khan, Niraj Kabir, Konkona Sen Sharma, Sumit Gulati
Duration: 2 hours 12 minute
Bollywood Bubble Rating: 4/5

Two and a half hours of miracle; that’s how one can possibly describe “Talvar”. Jumping from the very different genres of “Filhaal” and “Dus Kahaniya”, Meghna Gulzar has nailed it with the tight-packed storyline. Bonus for you is Vishal Bhardwaj’s super engaging screenplay and subdue yet effective background score.

The 2008 Noida Double Murder Mystery is a much talked-about incident where a married couple were announced guilty, years after their daughter (Arushi Talwar) along with the servant was found dead. It was assumed to be an example of honour killing where the daughter was supposedly involved with the servant and on catching her in an indecent position with the servant, her parents (Rajesh Talwar and Nupur Talwar) killed her out of sudden rage.

We’re thoroughly aware of the incident, thanks to the media which never fails to put us into a running commentary of such news. Well, this is not the first time that a film is being made on a real life incident. But we assume all the films don’t make you recall, rethink about all what you read, thought and concluded so far. This film does.

Mature compact execution of a crime isn’t easy. Diplomatically portraying the internal crisis of the judiciary along with its blemishes, complications, politics and how these actually affect justice, isn’t easy. Creating a gripping mystery without engaging into loud cheap thrills is indeed tough. Storytelling becomes difficult when it’s not a mere story anymore but starts narrating real life tragedies. We can’t help but praise Meghna Gulzar as she does it so aptly.

In case you’re wondering what’s so new about Talvar that you don’t already know from newspapers, we tell you it’s the journey towards the conclusion. The journey you’ll watch will raise thousand different questions about what you knew so far. Uneasy, uncomfortable, unputdownable ones.

Irrfan Khan doesn’t require any more applauds, we’ve accepted he’s something beyond just an actor. Neeraj Kabi and Konkona Sen Sharma as Rajesh and Talwar are perfectly balanced. We loved Gajraj Rao and Atul Kumar for assimilating their characters finely and Sumit Gulati for his subtle expressions. One should be grateful to Vishal Bharadwaj for not burdening the film with overloud background scores that fail to create any suspense and instead going for deep apt minimal usage of music.

We couldn’t take our eyes off for as long as it went on. Go check out, you’ll thank us later.

Ranjini Maitra

Journalist. Writer. Reader. Enthu cutlet. Mood-swing machine. Day dreamer. Sandwiched between ‘live life fully’ and ‘lose some weight’. Mantra of life: Love and love more.