BLURR

Tecnicamente di buon livello - ottima fotografia -, con interpretazioni adeguate da parte di Taapsee Pannu e di Gulshan Devaiah. Purtroppo i pregi finiscono qui. Ho letto in rete la trama di Con gli occhi dell'assassino, pellicola spagnola del 2010 di cui Blurr è il remake ufficiale hindi, trama che sembrerebbe riproposta in toto nelle sue linee generali. Non conoscendone i dettagli, non so se attribuire all'originale o al remake la responsabilità di una sceneggiatura a tratti imbarazzante. L'accenno all'invisibilità sociale, tema interessante, non viene gestito con la dovuta convinzione. La regia è davvero stoica nel suo tentativo di arginare le implausibilità, in parte ci riesce anche rendendo il film una sorta di esperienza sensoriale, ma per salvare Blurr bisognava scartare senza pietà quella che appare come una prima bozza di sceneggiatura e riscriverla daccapo.

TRAMA

Gautami, musicista con problemi di vista, vive da sola in una casa isolata in un luogo dove piove incessantemente. E quando smette cala comunque una nebbia fitta a ricoprire animali, vegetali e minerali. Gautami detesta il rap, e decide di impiccarsi in soffitta (le due cose non sono collegate). All'ultimo momento ci ripensa, ma a qualcuno i ripensamenti non piacciono.

RECENSIONI

Mid-Day:

'The film is shot almost entirely within closed quarters, where the incredibly few characters live, or die. In fact, the movie is so self-contained in its spaces you stick only to its insulated story line, not once its time or place setting, let alone the society that surrounds it, or even semblance of a larger politics. (...) The camera, (...) stepping in and out of rooms, zooming in and out of characters, calls for skilful photography, to costantly create and release tension. (...) Purely as a performer, she's [Taapsee Pannu] doubtlessly in her element in a double-role. She's possibly the most thriller-happy, female lead/star we've had in Bollywood. (...) Blurr is what should qualify as a 'why-', instead of 'who-dunnit'.'

Mayank Shekhar, 07.12.22

Recensione integrale

Film Companion:

'The execution is too self-serious to realize the complexity of its themes. The movie is too preoccupied with being scary, suspenseful, stylish or clever to empathise with - or even understand - the humans within. (...) [Taapsee] Pannu's Gayatri experiences a whole lot of trauma as a person. (...) But her performance makes it hard to invest in Gayatri beyond the immediate threat to her life. (...) Blurr is all design and no instinct. (...) The perpetually jolted expression rarely conveys a broader depth. It's also awkward writing. It's often about what's happening to her within a moment, in isolation to the rest of the story; the tone is totally different in the next scene, with some sequences entirely missing transitions and chunks of exposition. (...) There is very little emotional continuity, as though the makers are only concerned with the plot rather than the mental consequences of being stalked by a psychopath. (...) This dissonance is jarring, the jump-scares are desperate, and it only goes to show that the film lacks a sense of touch despite being a giant metaphor about sensory connections. (...) The use of darkness (...) is gimmicky. (...) The world-building feels incomplete'.

Rahul Desai, 09.12.22

Recensione integrale

Cinema Hindi: ** 1/2

Punto di forza: fotografia di classe, l'impegno di Taapsee Pannu, il sempre delizioso Gulshan Devaiah, lo sforzo apprezzabile da parte della regia di tenere insieme il film.

Punto debole: trama priva di una chiara direzione, sceneggiatura traballante, personaggi minori poco incisivi.

SCHEDA DEL FILM

Cast:

* Taapsee Pannu - Gayatri (antropologa)/Gautami (musicista), sorelle gemelle

* Gulshan Devaiah - Neel, marito di Gayatri

Regia: Ajay Bahl

Sceneggiatura: adattamento hindi di Pawan Sony e di Ajay Bahl della sceneggiatura di Con gli occhi dell'assassino (2010), di cui Blurr è il remake ufficiale.

Colonna sonora: Rishi Dutta & Shivangi Bhayana, commento musicale Ketan Sodha

Fotografia: Sudhir K. Chaudhary

Montaggio: Manish Pradhan

Anno: 2022

Trailer

RASSEGNA STAMPA

* Taapsee Pannu talks about her horror thriller Blurr, Sudeshna Banerjee, The Telegraph, 26 dicembre 2022:

'Blurr is your first film as producer. What made you turn one?

I always planned to turn producer but this film did not feature in the plan. Two months after signing the film I realised I needed a bit more than just being an actor. I wanted the film to be made in and look a certain way. As an actor, you can’t really command a lot of things. So I decided to step in as a co-producer so I could actually ask for things beyond acting - right from casting to the technical departments or how the film needs to look... I asked Vishal (Rana, the producer) who had the script, to let me come on board. Once that happened, I asked him if we could ask Ajay (Bahl) sir to direct it. I had seen his Section 375 and had messaged him saying I wanted to work with him.

This is a remake of the Spanish film Julia’s Eyes. Did you watch the original?

I had seen it in 2018 when I was doing Badla, which was based on another film (The Invisible Ghost) written by him (Oriol Paulo). I was so blown away by his writing that I watched everything he had written. So when this came my way, I did not need any description and said yes.

What kind of changes were made for the Indian adaptation?

Sometimes European thrillers are too cold for Indian audiences. At a human level there is very little takeaway. So we brought in the humanness in the film where you have a certain mental condition to take back home. It’s also a human drama in addition to being a thriller. That humanness has been added in the script. There is a kind of, I wouldn’t say social commentary, but something that will make you look at society and certain people in a different way. (...)

In the scene where they [le due gemelle] are together, the opaque lens in Gautami’s eyes helped viewers distinguish the two.

Getting those lenses, which made me actually blind, really helped me perform. I tried leaving them behind for a couple of scenes, thinking VFX would take care of it later. But it was just not working. So I chose to actually go “blind”. If you’ve seen me banging into things, that is because I genuinely can’t see there. Only the parts where I am climbing up and down stairs are where I could actually see a little through my bandages so I didn’t actually trip and injure myself. Then shooting would stop (laughs). But other than that, every sequence where you see me blind or blindfolded, I actually can’t see anything. The only thing I could sense is where the light was coming from.

How disconcerting was it to shoot like that? Gautami, who lived alone in her house, had to know her way around, right?

We had shot a few sequences of Gayatri in that house before I shot Gautami. Since Gayatri was turning blind slowly, I could take the liberty of being a new blind person who just doesn’t know how to deal with this blindness. When I turned blind for Gautami, I could not be bumping into things as it is her house. I was pretty familiar with that house by then.

Could you switch on your other sensory faculties when the camera was switched on?

In between shots and takes, it was just too cumbersome to remove those lenses and that blindfold all the time, plus it is difficult to go in and out of the blind zone. So most of the time, I kept the lenses on so I could get used to them. It was very uncomfortable at the start. You get anxious and impatient that you cannot use your eyes suddenly. But that heightened my other senses. I feel I started listening more and thinking in a more balanced way. My mental focus became sharper.

You were having to react to even wind or sound. Were those provided to you as cue?

Since I was not so used to being blind, certain things I needed a cue on. So I needed someone behind the camera to tell me that at this moment, someone passed. But for the wind, I had to react to myself because I could feel it on my body. Also there are a few sequences using things other than sound, where we wanted the audience to experience even visually. When I lose my eyes, you don’t see either on the screen. We wanted the audience to get into the world where the protagonist, through whom you are watching the film, sees what you see, but when she does not you also do not. That was an experiential-level writing.

You screened the film for a visually-challenged audience. How did that go?

I was not prepared for that kind of response. We opened it first to them. I reached there not knowing how they would respond as I am not clear how they understand a film without watching it. There is an audio description for the visually challenged. But we are so used to visualising a film that I don’t know how they process it. It was crazier than a singlescreen audience response. They were screaming, shouting, cheering... (...) The questions they put were so nuanced. They even asked me about the software on my phone that I used! I was in tears by the end of it'.

CURIOSITÀ

* Blurr segna il debutto di Taapsee Pannu nel ruolo di produttrice.

* Riferimenti al cinema indiano: Kishore Kumar