‘Khufiya’ Review: Vishal Bhardwaj’s Latest Is Held Together by a Brilliant Cast

Vishal Bhardwaj takes the vessel of an espionage thriller and fills it with the stories of men and women on missions, both political and personal. An assassination attempt in Dhaka goes haywire and points to the most obvious conclusion – there’s a mole in the Research & Analysis Wing. Based on former R&AW official’s book Escape to Nowhere, Bhardwaj’s latest Khufiya paints an intriguing picture at first. 

Perhaps it’s the hopes we place on Bhardwaj or the allure of a phenomenal Tabu as an intelligence operative Krishna Mehra (KM) but Khufiya is incredibly engaging for the first hour. We receive information as and when the characters do and so, suspicions continue to flare in a fashion that keeps the viewer questioning.

One Ravi Mohan (Ali Fazal) is suspected of sharing confidential information with conspirators and naturally, his family also comes under R&AW’s radar. His family consists of his wife Charu (Wamiqa Gabbi), his son, and his mother (Navnindra Behl). While the multiple tapping set-ups and secret cameras and audio devices will never lose their appeal in a thriller, Bhardwaj’s film lights up when we look into the people in the story. 

Tabu plays KM with the dignity and somber quality of a tortured artist. Her family life is strained because of the multiple secrets she must keep from her son and her personal life beyond that is strained by the need for vengeance for her lover. A woman scorned, she can never truly let these emotions control her lest they affect her professional career. However, they do haunt her; a haunting brutally evident in Tabu’s every subtle choice as an actor. 

With Charu, Bhardwaj creates an unlikely suspect (one Indian thrillers are catching on to) – that of a homemaker who seems content with her life, unless she is in her own company. Gabbi gets some of the film’s more intriguing scenes – after she packs food for her family, she smokes alone in the balcony and ‘performs’ sensually to an old Bollywood song. We view Charu through her own lens and through KM’s. The film sets these lenses up brilliantly but doesn’t follow through.

That is Khufiya’s biggest setback – the reluctance to follow through on its most delicious angles. The film seems like it’s often standing on a cliff, ready to take the plunge but it never happens. There is, of course, something to be appreciated in its simplicity but it never pushes the boundaries of how zany it can truly get and that gets bothersome. 

Fazal as Ravi plays on the thin line between passion and obsession; of one man’s belief that he is working towards the ‘Greater Good’, an Utopian concept that is often used to shroud murkier motives. Whether Ravi is a moral character or not is left up to interpretation (what is morality even in the situation he’s in?). 

Fazal brings all of these nuances alive – he is a good father and an obedient son. When he loses something he loves, he weeps like a child after a bout of rage. Fazal and Tabu, in the scenes they get together, elevate every detail on screen. 

If Bhardwaj had kept the poetry of Khufiya alive throughout the film, there would’ve been much more to love. Because there are Bhardwaj’s touches across the story – who else would use the image of a mole between a woman’s collarbones, viewed in a moment of intimacy, to introduce an espionage thriller?

And of course, he would use names from ‘The Tragedy of Julius Caesar’ as codenames in a mission. This poetic sense runs in the veins of most of Bhardwaj’s works but here, it seems to be pooling on the surface.  

It is this, coupled with some of the scenes being unnecessarily dragged out, that makes one impatient during some sequences. It’s a movie that is trying to reveal and conceal too much, too soon – for the first time I wonder if this film would’ve been better as a limited series. The risk would’ve given more space for the characters to come alive.

And maybe we would’ve seen more of the absolutely wonderful Azmeri Haque Badhon, who deserves all the praise she will get for her role, with the limited but expertly utilised screen time she gets. 

Khufiya is a world of ‘what if’s and ‘maybe’s and that’s how it leaves you feeling, even if you end up with a content smile on your face (I did).