The Irrfan Khan starrer begins promisingly but descends pretty quickly into flatness and sluggishness, a classic problem of not knowing quite how to play out a perky idea.

Abhinay Deo’s film starring Irrfan Khan is about controlled chaos but to pull that off, you need much sharper writing and a faster pace…

Goes cuckoo after a crafty, confident start…Irrfan Khan, of course, is the king of sardonic humour, with snarky lines delivered straight-faced.

Considering the trailer that was funny enough to tickle your funny bone, the movie is not even near to it.

Feckless men on the back foot, wily and strong-willed women with transgressive tricks up their sleeves and a set of nondescript lives hurtling towards hell in an irreversible tailspin: Blackmail has them all. Sadly, in the end, they do not add up neatly enough to yield a genuine cinematic corker.

Unlike Deo-directed Delhi Belly! Blackmail’s black comedy lacks pace and absurdity for viewers to be entirely sold to the events. Plot contrivance comes in as all characters indulge in blackmailing far too easily and with little repercussions. You stick around for the Irrfan show and he doesn’t disappoint.

“Blackmail” disappoints because it did have the potential to be an intriguing tale. If you must, watch it for Irrfan’s delightfully nuanced performance.

You want to feel more for this character. I ended up feeling more for the actor Irrfan, on the other hand. As we speak, he is undergoing treatment for a serious health issue. If anything, this movie tells us, he needs to get better soon, and come back with much, much better stuff. The audiences, like me, are praying, patiently waiting.

Blackmail then is an engaging but flawed tragi-comedy of errors…

A toilet paper salesman attempts to infuse some life into his marriage and comes home early to find his wife in bed with another man. Instead of confronting them, he chooses to blackmail them. This sets off a series of what ifs and what then scenes that seem super chaotic and funny, but nothing makes you really care. If Irrfan Khan weren’t as talented as he is, this film would have fallen apart within fifteen minutes.

Irrfan Khan’s Blackmail is a roller-coaster with its own set of ups and downs. A song in the film goes like ‘Bewafa Beauty, Haaye, Ishq Mein Cheating Kar Gayi! But director Abhinay Deo stays true to his words and delivers a film that’s high on quirky quotient and almost ticks off most of the check-boxes barring a few. If you are looking out for some ‘hatke’ black comedy then Blackmail is your comfort food.

Despite the magnificent build-up in the first half, the second quickly begins to disintegrate, the twists and turns begin to confuse and the jokes get repetitive. It literally “suc…s” out the fun.