Blackout review: Between robbing gold and becoming a cuckold, Vikrant Massey takes us on a long drive in this comedy crime caper

Blackout stars Vikrant Massey, Mouni Roy, Sunil Grover, Jisshu Sengupta, Karan Sudhakar Sonawane, Saurabh Dilip Ghadge, Ruhani Sharma, Anantvijay Joshi, Prasad Oak, Chhaya Raghunath Kadam, Sooraj Pops, and Kelly Dorji.

Jab andhera hota hai, aadhi raat ke baad, ek chor nikalta hai, kaali si sadak pe, yeh aawaz aati hai: chor-chor, chor-chor, sheheron ki galiyon mein… this evergreen RD Burman songs never goes out of fashion so long as Bollywood continues to make crazy capers about a robbery that goes wrong. It is also the premise of Devang Shashin Bhavsar’s just-released film, a group of robbers plan a heist named Operation Blackout. Only that, it is not midnight but 7:52 pm, stepping into the night.

Blackout Movie Overview

In the Hindi film Blackout, which rides on a versatile Vikrant Massey’s act, the entire city of Pune has been engulfed in darkness for a night. Investigative reporter Lenny D’Souza (Massey) has to step out into the mystery-enveloped city when his wife Roshni (Ruhani Sharma) sends him out on an errand, he hits a jackpot when his car hits the robbers’ van, which topples and kills the thieves, and the middle-class sting-operation journalist Lenny is gobsmacked to see so much gold and moolah. He pulls one trunk from that stash and packs it in his car’s boot. Ruhani Sharma, who delivered quite the act in Kanu Bahl’s Agra, brings a double-edged mithi chhuri quality to her characters, they aren’t plain Janes and, like Lenny, the audiences don’t know what all she can brew besides burnt lentil soup.

Blackout Movie Trailer

Blackout Movie Review: Plot Thickens

As Lenny speeds, lost in his jubilation of robbing a lottery, he hits a guy. As he flounders what to do, enters the first of his many zany co-passengers who’d ask him for a ride and take Lenny on a ride. Enter a poetry-spouting homeless drunkard aptly called Bewada, essayed by Sunil Grover, who, much like Massey, can bring on the comic and the gravitas with equal élan.

Next enter two reel-maker Instagram influencers who are essentially wanted small-time thieves Thik and Thak, played by Karan Sonawane and Saurabh Ghadge, and a woman whose car has broken down, Shruti, played by Mouni Roy, who puts on a damsel-in-distress act. Somewhere in the corner, lurking in the shadows, is a detective, Arvind (Jisshu Sengupta), zooming in on Lenny, who is perennially harassed and harrowed by the circumstances of his own making and the bizarre folks he keeps running into. Sitting on the pendulum of greed, Massey and his motley co-passengers swing between fortune and misfortune in this film.

Blackout Movie Review: Style and Form

Time stamps, freeze frames and flashbacks give backstories to every character of the ensemble cast and attempts to lend a graphic novel feel to the film, which seems to have been made for the Insta generation, every subplot like different reels threaded together. Chaotic, cacophonic comedies are the flavour of the season, they are back not only in the political landscape but in Bollywood, too. And the countrymen can do with some laughter in their movies as the heatwave wrings them dry.

Blackout Movie Cameo

Oh, there is a blink-and-miss cameo by Chhaya Kadam, too, as a protesting ex-MLA. Kadam has just returned from the 77th Cannes Film Festival, where her film All We Imagine as Light, directed by Payal Kapadia, was nominated for Palme d’Or and won the Grand Prix, India’s first ever win. Kadam is soon becoming an essential in Bollywood comedies and works again in this film with producer Jyoti Deshpande after Kiran Rao’s Laapataa Ladies (2024). There is also a cameo by Anant Joshi as Lenny’s best friend Ravi, who brings to life the yesteryear song dost dost na raha, pyaar pyaar na raha. Massey and Joshi reunite after 12th Fail.

Blackout Movie Review: Writing Needs a Lift

At 122 minutes, the ride is long and meandering. The writing, however, could have done without the loose screws and with some punchlines that would land with a thud. Grover, who is also the erstwhile Don Asgar, is quite not the snake as his name evinces but a godsend for Massey, both of whom drive this franchise and keep the audiences wanting for more as the film takes dramatic turns at every jerk brake.

Blackout Star

As for Massey sahib, the bechara, earnest, unassuming protagonist, shows he's a fluid artist, willing to take on the shape of the container he’s poured into. If he makes you feel for his gentle, sensitive Shutu in Konkona Sensharma’s A Death in a Gunj (2016), and make you cry buckets and smile-with-relief for IAS aspirant Manoj in Vidhu Vinod Chopra’s 12th Fail (2023), he assures you a light-minded watch with Devang Bhavsar’s Blackout.

Disclaimer: Blackout has been produced by Viacom18. Moneycontrol, part of Network18 group, and Viacom18 are run by Reliance Industries Limited.