Judgementall Hai Kya: Before Kangana Ranaut-Rajkummar Rao Starrer, 10 Memorable Movies With Flawed Male and Female Leads Who Manipulate Each Other!
In Judgementall Hai Kya, Kangana Ranaut plays a stalker who has a history of mental illness. Rajkummar Rao plays her neighbour who may not be as decent as he loves to portray himself.
We as an audience are often exposed to protagonists who are whiter than milk and whose negligible faults, if any, are often their embellishments. Even if it is hard to find such a person IRL these days. And then occasionally comes a movie like Judgementall Hai Kya, that throws us these flawed characters who feel like a fresh breath of air. Judgementall Hai Kya is directed by Prakash Kovelamudi and stars Kangana Ranaut and Rajkummar Rao in the lead, reuniting for the first time after the acclaimed 2014 film Queen. Judgementall Hai Kya Box Office Prediction: Will Kangana Ranaut and Rajkummar Rao's Second Film Together Get Cash Registers Ringing? Find Out!
In Judgementall Hai Kya, Kangana Ranaut plays a stalker who has a history of mental illness. Rajkummar Rao plays her neighbour who may not be as decent as he loves to portray himself. So when they become the two suspects in a murder, both try to pin the blame on each other. It is definitely an interesting premise that takes advantage of its flawed leads and the fine dynamics of the actors playing the role. Though Judgementall Hai Kya is not the first movie to do so! Judgementall Hai Kya First Reviews: Critics Impressed by Kangana Ranaut and Rajkummar Rao's Performances in the Slick Suspense Thriller.
In this throwback feature, let's look at 10 movies where both the male and female leads try to manipulate each other in their attempts to be at the top of the game.
AndhaDhun
One of the best thrillers/ dark comedies to release in recent times, AndhaDhun has Akash (Ayushmann Khurrana), a pianist who pretends to be blind to make better music. These antics of his get him embroiled in a double murder, both involving a shrewd femme fatale, Simi (Tabu). Each then tries to get at the other using devious ways, and even by the end, we are not exactly sure who won that battle. Though Akash definitely looks to have had that final malevolent trump card...
Badla
In the case of this Sujoy Ghosh thriller, one of the leads had a justifiable motivation at least. The movie is about how a businesswoman, Naina Sethi (Taapsee Pannu) is accused of murdering her former lover and a new attorney Badal Gupta (Amitabh Bachchan) comes to get her statement. What follows is a series of mind-games, as the accused tries to present her side, and the attorney tries to find holes in her story, leading to a startling revelation.
Sonu Ke Titu Ki Sweety
Sonu (Kartik Aaryan) and Sweety (Nushrat Bharucha) had a different rivalry going on, and it involves Titu (Sunny Singh). Sonu is Titu's BFF who is over-possessive of him to the point of being unhealthy. Which is why he is also jealous of Sweety, Titu's fiancee, who encroaches on their personal space. Sweety also turns out to be a gold-digger and her manipulative rivalry with Sonu forms the crux of this romcom. And while we are at this, let's also remind you that SKTKS shares a similar premise with that of De Taali, that had starred Riteish Deshmukh, Aftab Shivdasani and Rimi Sen.
Saheb, Biwi Aur Gangster series
When we talk of manipulative leads, how can we forget Tigmanshu Dhulia's darkly thrilling franchise that is filled with flawed characters soaked in grey shades? At the pivot of them all, are the arrogant Saheb (Jimmy Sheirgill) and his neglected, vindictive Biwi (Mahie Gill), both trying to oust each other from being at the peak of power.
Ittefaq
While the original film's male lead (played by the late Rajesh Khanna) was an innocent caught in strange circumstances, the same cannot be said about the remake. The new Ittefaq has a fugitive murder accused author (Sidharth Malhotra) and a scheming widow (Sonakshi Sinha) trying to pin the blame of latter's husband's murder on each other. It is left upto a smart cop (Akshaye Khanna) to figure out which of their narratives has the least holes. Though, in the end, the real killer manages to get away.
Drishyam
In this remake of a Malayalam cult classic, Ajay Devgn plays a cunning patriarch who tries to protect his family by hiding an accidental murder. Tabu plays the investigating officer who also happens to be the mother of the murdered person. While the man builds up a convincing web of lies, it is upto the cop to determine how she can break through the deceit and see the real truth.
Inkaar
Sudhir Mishra's underrated psychological drama delves into sexual harassment in corporate places. Arjun Rampal plays the CEO of an ad agency who finds himself at the receiving end of a sexual harassment complaint filed by his protege/former lover (Chitrangadha Singh). Both the parties present their versions of the story to the committee set up to investigate the allegations; the male accuses the female of trying to usurp his position. The female alleges that the male is trying to create an unsafe environment for her. And the committee is clueless as to who is the real victim here!
Ladies Vs Ricky Bahl
In his second film as the lead, Ranveer Singh is Ricky Bahl, a conman who dupes single women by proposing marriage and then running away with their valuables. Three of his victims, one of them played by a scene-stealing Parineeti Chopra, hire a thief (Anushka Sharma) to dupe him. This results in a quirky love story full of manipulation, seduction, heartbreak and ultimately, reconciliation.
Ek Hasina Thi
Sriram Raghavan's filmography makes a second appearance in this list, through his underrated but terrific debut directorial. In this film, both the leads, played by Saif Ali Khan and Urmila Matondkar, manipulate each other for their own means, only at different times. Saif's sneaky conman traps his naive neighbour, played by Urmila, in a fake romance and then gets her arrested on false charges. The girl, after getting released from jail, creates even more manipulative situations to trap the guy as revenge, leading to a very chilling climax.
Raincoat
Among all the films in this list, the manipulation in this brilliantly understated drama, made by the late Rituparno Ghosh, is the most heartbreaking. For in Raincoat, the lies created by the two former lovers (Ajay Devgn and Aishwarya Rai Bachchan) are not to cause harm to each other. Instead, their conceits are more to hide their pitiable conditions, even though in the end, both realise that neither are better off in their lives.
(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Jul 25, 2019 06:28 PM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).