Blackout Movie Review: Sunil Grover the Sole Saving Grace in Vikrant Massey and Mouni Roy's Irksome Crime-Comedy (LatestLY Exclusive)

Blackout Movie Review: Blackout is a crime-comedy set over the course of one night. The film is replete with crimes – robberies, shootouts, murders, cheating, stealing, etc. – but the comedy is hard to find. Don’t get me wrong; there are plenty of jokes, one-liners, and gags in the film. However, unless your humour has been flavoured by countless rewatches of The Kapil Sharma Show, it is hard to find one scene to smile at in Blackout. Blackout OTT Release: Here’s When and Where To Watch Vikrant Massey and Mouni Roy’s Comedy-Thriller Online!

Written and directed by Devang Bhavsar, Blackout is set in Pune, where a jewellery shop robbery triggers a chain of events across the city, dragging in crime reporter Lenny (Vikrant Massey). The robbers cause a blackout across the city to execute their heist, during which Lenny goes out to buy anda-pav for his wife, Roshni (Ruhani Sharma).

Watch the Trailer of Blackout:

On the way, his car collides with the robbers' van, and he finds all of them dead, with loads of cash and jewellery in the van. He takes off with one of the boxes and puts it in his car’s boot, but as he drives, Lenny finds himself in situations where he has to take on more occupants, like a drunkard (Sunil Grover), a pair of thieving influencers Thik-Thak (Karan Sonawane and Saurabh Gadge), and a lady, Shruti (Mouni Roy), who claims her car broke down. He is also chased by a private detective (Jisshu Sengupta) throughout the night.

Blackout Movie Review - Exciting on Paper, Dumb on Screen

The plot has all the ingredients for a good black comic thriller, but the ingredients alone are not enough. It also depends on the quality of those ingredients and who ends up making the dish. *Blackout* has plenty of comical situations, but the low-grade humour does little justice to these or to the actors. Everything from the performances to the situations is loud, frenetic, and frenzied in an attempt to be funny, and the movie doesn’t pause to ask if we are actually finding any of it amusing.

Perhaps out of pity for seeing actors like Massey and Grover trying too hard to flog a dead horse, there are a couple of jokes that feel mildly hilarious. For instance, a character commenting if the name of a philandering spouse is ‘Sonam Gupta’, or Lenny taking out his frustrations through gunfire to the beat of "Chaiyya Chaiyya". Otherwise, most of the humour is simply lame attempts at bad jokes. Blackout Song 'Kya Hua': Second Track of Vikrant Massey and Mouni Roy's Film Perfectly Captures Story's Essence, Crooned by Vishal Mishra.

Blackout Movie Review - Humour Doesn't Land

The influencer characters are the best examples of this. Both actors who play these roles are good otherwise, and they do share nice timing with each other. However, since they are burdened with lazy lines, the characters end up annoying us. Mouni Roy gives a shaky performance in a thankless role, and Jisshu Sengupta is also saddled with a part that gives him some scope only in the third act.

If this was not enough, Anil Kapoor is given the job of being a voice-only narrator for no legitimate reason. At times, he tries to do a jhakaas version of Mahabharat's ‘Main Samay Hoon’ or is tasked with giving each character the most awkwardly embarrassing introduction. It is disappointing to see the formidable Chhaya Kadam in an inconsequential role after having an impressive year this year with Laapataa Ladies, Madgaon Express and All We Imagine as Light.

The second half of Blackout was slightly better than the first, more so because it was an elongated third act where Sunil Grover gets to show a different shade and impresses at that. There is actually a song that kind of shows his character’s existential crisis. But the ensuing fight scene, followed by a series of silly twists that are either too dumb or too predictable, returns Blackout to its annoying form.

Blackout Movie Review - Final Thoughts

With a treatment that veers between frenetic and idiotic, Blackout's sole saving grace is Sunil Grover's performance. The weak humour and hyperkinetic performances do no good to a storyline that may sound appealing on paper, but the resultant product on screen makes you wish you suffered a blackout instead of Pune. Blackout is streaming on JioCinema.

(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Jun 07, 2024 10:03 AM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).