Blackout Review: Half-baked and Slow-paced!

BLACKOUT

Director- Devang Shashin Bhavsar

Cast- Vikrant Massey, Mouni Roy, Sunil Grover, Jishu Sengupta, Prasad Oak, Chaya Kadam, Karan Sudhakar Sonawane and Saurabh Dilip Ghadge

Platform of Release- OTT Jio Cinema

Rating:

By Jyothi Venkatesh

Blackout aspires to be a fast-paced dark comedy, but the extremely loose narrative and far too many characters prevent it from reaching its full potential. Even though flashes of humour and strong performances from the lead actors offer glimpses of what could have been, the film badly suffers from decent content and ultimately falters due to its overambitious script.

Despite the film’s shortcomings, Vikrant Massey delivers a commendable performance as Lenny. His comic timing shines throughout, even amidst the film’s more outlandish moments. Sunil Grover, portraying the drunk Encounter Cop Bewdya, offers moments of amusement, but his character arc feels forced. The film generates some laughs through one-liners and the antics of Karan Sudhakar Sonawane and Saurabh Dilip Ghadge—their quest to retrieve Lenny’s stolen camera provides a few chuckles.

Lenny D’Souza (Vikrant Massey), an amateur crime reporter, ventures out for food during a city-wide power outage. What happens when a chance encounter with a van full of armed robbers throws Lenny into a chaotic night, forcing him to flee with a stolen chest, a dead body, and some unlikely companions – a drunkard named Bewdya (Sunil Grover), two petty thieves (Karan Sudhakar Sonawane as Thik and Saurabh Dilip Ghadge as Thak, a pun on Tik-Tok), and a mysterious woman named Shruti (Mouni Roy), forms the crux of the plot.

Also read: Munjya Review: Exciting Blend of Horror and Comedy!

Though the premise offers an intriguing setup for an excellent dark comedy, the film unfortunately sets out to falter due to an uneven and lop-sided screenplay and an extremely overstuffed and almost flippant narrative. In its attempt to showcase a night of chaos for Lenny, the main plot becomes repetitive and lacks focus.

As the narrative loses momentum, the second half introduces many unconvincing plot twists and a flurry of new characters with very minimal build-up. Bewdya’s backstory, for instance, feels half-baked and forced, and the introduction of a mafia don, Mugil Anna (Sooraj Pops), only ends up diluting credibility. Detective Arvind (Jishu Sengupta) adds to the already overcrowded cast, introducing yet another weak thread that feels quite superfluous.

Despite the film’s shortcomings, it is Vikrant Massey who delivers a commendable performance as Lenny. His comic timing shines throughout, even amidst the film’s outlandish moments. Sunil Grover, portraying the drunk Bewdya, offers moments of amusement, but his character looks too forced. The film generates some laughs through one-liners while Karan Sudhakar Sonawane and Saurabh Dilip Ghadge fail to impress. Mouni Roy and Jishu have been wasted. So have Prasad Oak and Chaya Kadam been.