Death—in the blur of the moment!

Itrsquos so well shotrdquo is the only review Irsquod heard before watching Blurr the official Hindi remake of Guillem Moralesrsquos Juliarsquos Eyes 2010 a wellrated Spanish horrorthriller That blurb came from filmmaker Anurag Kashyap casually smoking in the corner at a partyKashyap is indisputably Bombayrsquos strongest film criticmdashhaving championed more movies of knownunknown others over years in interviews blogs social networksmdashoften lending his name practically for free adding flex as a lsquopresenterrsquo purely because he loved a particular filmOnly the words ldquowell shotrdquo for movies like ldquointerestingrdquo in life in general means nothing What does it in the context of Blurrmdashshot by Sudhir Chaudhary Shershaah Drishyam 2 overall competently sincerely executed by director Ajay Bahl who in turn was also the cinematographer of his debut BA Pass 2012I got to know Bahl after BA Pass and wersquove been close friends full disclaimer Hersquos directed as many films since the next was Section 375 as hersquos dropped out ofmdashCity Lights 2014 with Rajkummar Rao Kartik Aaryan starrers Dhamaka 2021 Freddy 2022 None of these did anything particularly earthshattering for careers of directors who replaced him So itrsquos fine I guessWhile Blurr is set in the hills of Uttarakhandmdashthe sort of Instagramlocation where randomly clicking sunsetsunrise pix can produce likesworthy photographymdashthe film is shot almost entirely within closed quarters where the incredibly few characters live or dieA still from Juliarsquos EyesIn fact the movie is so selfcontained in its spacesmdashyou 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 politicsSometimes thatrsquos what a pure genre flick is as against a conversational meaningful purposeful piece full of width or depth I guess I donrsquot know But so what thenThe camera though stepping in and out of rooms zooming in and out of characters calls for skilful photography to constantly create and release tension Also so these beats donrsquot look like they belong to television or theatrestage The movie could easily fall into that hole DoesnrsquotWe are looking at a young anthropologist Taapsee Pannu along with her husband Gulshan Devaiah visiting her blind sister found dead hung at homeThis hill town has one composed firstrate conscientious cop played by Sumit Nijhawan disclosure dost with a twomember constabulary The cop is convinced the death was suicide he is constantly open to closing the caseThe sister is wholly unconvincedmdashthe deceased had no history of depression or related mental ailments for a possible causetrigger To top that she feels the presence of someone perennially following her aroundmdashthatrsquos the suspect in her head for the likely murderAll this is also Juliarsquos Eyes of coursemdashthat was produced by actor stardirector Guillermo del Toro Blurr is actor Pannursquos debut as producer Purely as a performer shersquos doubtlessly in her element in a doubleroleShersquos possibly the most thrillerhappy female leadstar wersquove had in Bollywoodmdashjumping from homeinvasion Game Over lsquoRun Lola Runrsquo Loop Lapeta pulpfiction Haseen Dillruba to timetravel Dobaara I find that the surest way to beat the Bechdel TestBlurr is what should qualify as a lsquowhyrsquo instead of lsquowhodunnitrsquo The latter involves a group of suspects to arrive at a killer This is more likemdashwhyrsquos whatever happening to the girl whose sister also died and however that happened Darker filters and horror for treatment if you mayHerersquos whatrsquos further common between the twin sisters in the film both suffer from degenerative eyesight meaning itrsquos been blurring with time Absolutely the greatest film on that theme and among the greatest musicals of all time has to be Lars von Trierrsquos Bjork starrer Dancer in the Dark 2000At least Blurrrsquos Spanish original if Irsquom not mistaken alluded more to how the sisters are mentally conjoinedmdashyou know if one is hit the other feels the pain too like Kishen Kanhaiya 1990 remember Kidding Juliarsquos Eyes probably was more explanatory by way of connecting the allimportant motive to crime as wellAll art comes from other art surely But since we are inevitably drawing comparisons in the slotmachine age of reduxesremixesmdashmight be essential to make a distinction between remakes and adaptations firstTemplate wise Blurr is a remake in the way say Pannu starrer Badla 2019 also was of the Spanish mysterythriller The Invisible Guest Helps immeasurably for the source to be obscure among mainstream crowds anywayAs against tinkering with popular titles where there is no choice but to altogether reimagine an adaptationmdashlike say Ram Gopal Varmarsquos Sarkar for The Godfather way more inspired hence authenticRemakes possibly also make for safer boxoffice punts especially for mysteriesthrillers if the original has worked in another marketOnly that the pandemic at least in the shortrun appears to have killed the mediumbudget filmgenre in theatres Fragmentation of the mainstream has further pushed up marketing costs to merely informexcite viewers that a new movie has opened in theatresHence Blurr drops on Zee5 December 9 Unless yoursquore a Torrentkhor and Irsquom not Juliarsquos Eyes is impossible to find online in India That grants the Hindi version at least the essential novelty on the InternetMayank Shekhar attempts to make sense of mass culture He tweets mayankw14Send your feedback to mailbagmiddaycomThe views expressed in this column are the individualrsquos and donrsquot represent those of the paper