'Blackmail' is wickedly funny (Review)
If I didn't know about Irrfan's health issue I'd still be shaken by his hangdog unenthusiastic expression as he plods through his chosen life of a born loser in this savagely funny satire on adultery and blackmail.
In the strikingly shot (by cinematographer Jay Oza) opening we see Irrfan (Dev) struggling to stay afloat through his office hours, fighting shy of going home because the spark has gone from his marriage and wife who watches cheesy song sequences on television to while away her time.
Actually, it was never there, the spark I mean. In a wedding song that comes on at the end of the film taken from Dev's marriage to Reena (Kirti Kulhari) seven years earlier, we see how mismatched and ill-at-ease the couple was.
This is a marriage where adultery is waiting to happen. And it does sooner than we expect. The takeoff point for the comedy is so steeply damning and done in the film with such humorous indulgence that we left pretty dazed by the absurdity of it all.
From the adulterous episode "Blackmail" builds into an edifice of outrageous eventualities all bursting at the seams but never getting out of control, such is the director Abhinay Deo's control over his characters, all victims of a scam that boggles the mind, tickles the senses and sets our imagination on the wildest wackiest ride since Abhinay Deo's "Delhi Belly".
While the writing sparkles with a roguish splendor, and the director fills the frames with a fiendish glee. The narrative does spark off a distant pensiveness in indicating the breach of modern urban marriages. While Irrfan's marital bedroom is shattered by Arundoy's presence, Arunodoy's own marriage with the bully wife played with splendid spleen by Divya Dutta, is no laughing matter. She treats him like her dog. He doesn't mind as long as his monthly allowance keeps coming. Arunodoy sets aside his ego to make the husband a henpecked gold-digger.
I found the scenes of domestic disharmony as enacted by Arunodoy and Divya to be far more vivid and representational of an urban despair than the Irrfan-Kirti marriage which is shown to be far quieter in its incongruities.
Arunodoy and Dutta are a riot together. Watching these two underrated actors imbue life and zest into their parts is a major part of the pleasure derived in viewing this bitterly dark comedy. Other exceptionally persuasive performances come from Praduman Singh as Irrfan's shifty cheesy office colleague and Anuja Sathe as a timid office co-worker who transforms into an avaricious money monster in no time at all.
Every actor gets the point. "Blackmail" is a film that celebrates the sheer lunacy of the marital equation when pushed against betrayal. Its strength lies in generating laughter out of the most meditative mishaps of marriage. The sheer preposterousness of making adultery into an occasion of a serial blackmail is used to invoke a sense of unabashed boisterousness.
"Blackmail" is a virgin territory in the comedy genre. It is heady and hedonistic, cocky and compelling in the way the comedies of Hrishikesh Mukherjee and Basu Chatterjee used to be. If only these veterans could see the sexiness that underlines all gender wars. "Blackmail" is a closeted Hrishikesh Mukherjee comedy with oodles of extra voluptuousness.
'Blackmail'; Starring: Irrfan, Kirti Kulhari, Arunodoy Singh, Divya Dutta, Praduman Singh, Anuja Sathe, Omi Vaidya; Directed by Abhinay Deo; Rating: ****(4 Stars)
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'Go back to your own country': Indian-origin taxi driver attacked in Dublin
London, Aug 5 (PTI): An Indian-origin taxi driver based in Ireland for over 23 years has become the latest to be targeted in an unprovoked attack in the capital Dublin, with local police (Gardai) launching an investigation into the violent assault.
Lakhvir Singh, in his 40s, told local media that he picked up two young men in their 20s on Friday night and dropped them at Poppintree, in the Ballymun suburb of Dublin.
Upon arriving at the destination, the men are said to have opened the vehicle door and struck him twice on the head with a bottle. As the suspects fled, they reportedly shouted: "Go back to your own country".
"In 10 years I've never seen anything like this happen," Singh told ‘Dublin Live’.
"I'm really scared now and I'm off the road at the moment. It will be very hard to go back. My children are really scared," he said.
A Dublin police spokesperson said Singh was taken to the city's Beaumont Hospital with injuries determined as not life-threatening.
"Gardaí are investigating an assault reported to have occurred in Poppintree, Ballymun, Dublin 11 at approximately 11:45 pm on Friday, 1st August 2025. A man, aged in his 40s, was brought to Beaumont Hospital for treatment of non-life-threatening injury. Investigations are ongoing," the spokesperson said.
The incident followed an Indian Embassy advisory, also issued on Friday, expressing safety concerns following recent attacks in and around the capital Dublin and urging Indian citizens to take safety precautions.
"There has been an increase in the instances of physical attacks reported against Indian citizens in Ireland recently,” states the advisory.
“The embassy is in touch with the authorities concerned in Ireland in this regard. At the same time, all Indian citizens in Ireland are advised to take reasonable precautions for their personal security and avoid deserted areas, especially at odd hours," the statement reads, adding emergency embassy contact details as 0899423734 and cons.dublin@mea.gov.in.
It came in the wake of a brutal attack on a 40-year-old Indian man at Parkhill Road in the Tallaght suburb of Dublin on July 19, described as “mindless, racist violence” by locals.
The Gardai had opened an investigation into the case and Indian Ambassador to Ireland Akhilesh Mishra was among those who took to social media to express shock over the attack.
“Regarding the recent incident of physical attack on an Indian national that happened in Tallaght, Dublin, the embassy is in touch with the victim and his family. All the requisite assistance is being offered. The embassy is also in touch with the relevant Irish authorities in this regard,” the embassy said in a social media post days after the incident.
A Stand Against Racism protest was also held by the local community in condemnation of what was described as a "vicious racist attack" and to express solidarity with migrants.
Last week, Dr Santosh Yadav took to LinkedIn to post details of a “brutal, unprovoked racist attack”.
The entrepreneur and AI expert stressed that it was not an isolated incident and called for “concrete measures” from the governments of Ireland and India to ensure Indians feel safe to walk the streets of Dublin.
His post revealed that a group of six teenagers attacked him from behind as he walked to his apartment in Dublin.
“This is not an isolated incident. Racist attacks on Indian men and other minorities are surging across Dublin — on buses, in housing estates, and on public streets. Yet, the government is silent. There is no action being taken against these perpetrators. They run free and are emboldened to attack again,” reads Yadav's post.
Fine Gael party Councillor for Tallaght South, Baby Pereppadan, was among those who expressed concern following last month’s attack.
“People need to understand that many Indian people moving to Ireland are here on work permits, to study and work in the healthcare sector or in IT and so on, providing critical skills,” he said.
Another violent anti-Indian attack in Ireland
— Journalist V (@OnTheNewsBeat) August 5, 2025
Taxi driver Lakhvir Singh was attacked with glass bottles while doing his job pic.twitter.com/mtkwhLWISx
