John Abraham has been concentrating on doing movies that are based on real-life incidents. After Parmanu last year, and Romeo Akbar Walter earlier this year, John is once again back on the big screen with a film that is inspired by the true events. We are talking about Batla House.
The movie, which is directed by Nikkhil Advani, is based on the encounter that took place in 2008 at Batla House, Delhi. It is one of the most publicized encounters and the film Batla House tells us the story of what exactly happened after the encounter took place. Sanjeev Kumar Yadav (John Abraham) is accused of killing the innocent students in the encounter. While those boys who were killed in the encounter were students, but they were not innocent. Now how Sanjeev Kumar Yadav tries to prove that those boys were terrorists and Delhi Police was not wrong, takes the story forward...
Batla House has a very dull first half. Apart from one or two interesting scenes, it has nothing to offer before the interval. The movie becomes much better in the second half and the courtroom scenes are the highlight. There's a scene in which John's character explains the meaning of a line written in Quran and talks about the Muslims in India, and that scene is damn interesting.
Nikkhil Advani has narrated the film well and Saumik Mukherjee's cinematography is amazing. But a weak screenplay fails to keep us engaged. Also, the film could have been easily shortened by at least 15 minutes. The first half has scenes that were not required, especially the ones between John and Mrunal.
Talking about the actors, John Abraham is fantastic in the film. He has clearly given one of the best performances of his career. Mrunal Thakur is the weakest element in the film. She has acted very badly and looks miscast. More than husband and wife, John and Mrunal look like father and daughter. Some another actress would have done wonders for the film. Nora Fatehi is awesome in the song O Saki Saki and this time she also has a few scenes in the film to showcase her acting chops. Well, Nora impresses us a lot with her performance and we surely wish to see her doing more acting-oriented roles.
Overall, Batla House is an average film, but if you are a John Abraham fan, then you must watch it.
Ratings: 2.5/5
Watch the trailer here...
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