What it is about

“Balram Halwai (Adarsh Gourav) narrates his epic and darkly humorous rise from poor villager to successful entrepreneur in modern India. Cunning and ambitious, our young hero jockeys his way into becoming a driver for Ashok (Rajkummar Rao) and Pinky (Priyanka Chopra-Jonas), who have just returned from America. Society has trained Balram to be one thing — a servant — so he makes himself indispensable to his rich masters. But after a night of betrayal, he realizes the corrupt lengths they will go to trap him and save themselves. On the verge of losing everything, Balram rebels against a rigged and unequal system to rise up and become a new kind of master.”

The positive

I enjoyed the last frame, the closing shot, and what it symbolises, but perhaps I was just relieved the film was finished after a 126 very average minutes. It is not a bad movie. At least it is not WW1984.

The negative

The film has a very generic, vanilla feeling to it. It does not add anything new to the narrative of the rich exploiting the poor, the oppressed becoming the oppressor, modern-day slavery, or government corruption. You see it all coming a mile away. Also, the trailer gave absolutely everything away.

What added to the boredom was the casting. One, Rajkummar Rao delivered a very wooden performance as Ashok. Two, Priyanka Chopra Jonas is not cast for her acting chops. Three, newcomer Adarsh Gourav is good enough, but I am not rushing out to see his next film.

The recommendation

Rather watch The Dig.