Rating: 3.5/5
Though it holds promise, the film ultimately comes off as chaotic, noisy, and lacking in humor. Initially, the crime caper starts strong, with a compelling observation and several intriguing twists and turns that captivate the audience. However, the second half sees a significant decline, with the story taking a nosedive. The non-linear narrative fails to sustain the audience’s interest, justifying the 3.5-star rating.
Plot
Films set over the course of a single night require a tightly woven narrative where every scene is essential due to the limited timeframe. Blackout begins with an interesting premise. Lenny D’Souza (Vikrant Massey), a crime reporter, sets out for a meal during a city-wide blackout.
However, a perilous encounter with a van full of armed robbers plunges Lenny into a chaotic night, forcing him to flee with a stolen chest, a dead body, and a few companions.
Review
Blackout is a 2024 Hindi-language black comedy thriller directed by Devang Shashin Bhavsar and produced by Jyoti Deshpande and Niraj Kothari. The film is set during a single night in Pune, where a blackout engulfs the city. Crime reporter Lenny D’Souza (Vikrant Massey) finds himself in a precarious situation after his car crashes into a van filled with cash, gold, and corpses.
Throughout the night, Lenny has bizarre encounters with a homeless alcoholic, Bewdya (Sunil Grover), and thieves Thik and Thak (Karan Sonaware, Saurabh Ghadge), who are more famous on Instagram than they are intelligent. He also meets a damsel in distress, Shruti Mehra (Mouni Roy).
However, elements such as Bewdya’s backstory and the introduction of mafia don Mugil Anna (Sooraj Pops) stretch the story’s credibility. Detective Arvind (Jeeshu Sengupta) adds to the already overcrowded cast, introducing another unnecessary plot thread.
Lenny’s eventful night could have been engaging if the story made sense. Under the guise of dark comedy, Blackout falls flat and turns into a mindless 2-hour-2-minute movie.
Despite the film’s flaws, Vikrant Massey delivers a commendable performance as Lenny. His comic timing shines through even the most outrageous moments. Sunil Grover, as the drunken poet Bewdya, provides some amusement, though his character arc feels forced.
The film does elicit a few laughs with its one-liners and the antics of Karan Sudhakar Sonawane and Saurabh Dilip Ghadge. Their quest to retrieve Lenny’s stolen camera provides some chuckles.
However, the screenplay and meandering storyline only add to the chaos. Blackout is populated with a host of one-dimensional characters—a crime reporter, a dead boy, a disloyal friend, a disgraced politician, a corrupt cop, a vengeful MLA, a deceitful wife, quirky pickpockets, a high-ranking detective, a mysterious woman, and a poetic drunkard.
