Khufiya Movie Review: Just keep a tab on Tabu!

A still from the series

Khufiya
On: Netflix
Dir: Vishal Bhardwaj
Cast: Tabu, Wamiqa Gabbi, Ali Fazal
Rating: 3.5/5

Khufiya didn't turn out to be the film I had clicked for. Which is a strange thing to say, because we know the film's genre, i.e. a spy thriller. And its setting, which is a national secret, meaning the world of state intelligence, espionage, handlers, agents and R&AW, India's secret service, to be precise.

So, why should there be disconnect between expectations, and the film? Because it's based on Amar Bhushan's true to life account, Escape to Nowhere. Bhushan, being an ex R&AW man himself. The book was the closest we could get to how India's spy agency actually works.

Essentially, filled with mid-income group babus, heading to "daftar" in buses with lunch-boxes, fighting over foreign postings. No different from any other bureaucracy/department, in and around Central Secretariat, in New Delhi.

Well, Vishal Bhardwaj's Khufiya obviously isn't quite a Pathaan, Tiger, or War, or any other such larger-than life spy-giri as excuse for blastfests, really. It's a whole lot more realistic.

Still, suitably stylised to seem the breathless thriller, with bends and turns, chops and chases, that a mainstream movie in the genre is meant to be. The 007 here is, decidedly, Tabu, getting in and out of countries - as and when, whacking a fellow or two.

Calling this thriller, over suspense - because we know the culprit, right from the beginning, that the drama is set around. That's a mole (Ali Fazal) in R&AW, photocopying, passing on crucial documents from the agency to the rival camp.

It appears the cinema hall is the best place to exchange confidential papers - more recently, we watched a similar scene take place in Srinagar's Paradise cinema in IB 71 (2023), like it's at a Paharganj theatre playing Main Hoon Na (2004) here.

Which gives you sense of the film's smartly structured timeline, cleverly going back and forth, from right after Kargil War (1999), onwards. It's easy enough to nab the R&AW mole - you can see him at work. So, why don't they?

He's not that important. Figuring out his puppeteers is. The bloke is under constant surveillance. The stakes are high, because the mole is responsible for the death of a key handler, who was particularly close to our 007, codenamed Cactus (Tabu).

As far as possible, this is equally an attempt at a personal film. For, regardless of genre, what's a story, if not about relationships.

The mole is codenamed Brutus. The operation to nab him is called Julius Casear, which is obviously a Vishal Bhardwaj self-reference, given the director's own fascination with Shakespeare (Maqbool, Omkara).

I'm told, Haider (2014), that's Bhardwaj's adaptation of Hamlet, was originally planned as a pure spy-thriller - before he got further inspired by Basharat Peer's book, Curfewed Night.

The raw material, therefore, if you'll pardon the pun, is all there. Bhushan's Escape to Nowhere, as with all of Bhardwaj's literary adaptations, is merely the take-off point.

All characters have been imagined anew - whether the mole's wife (Wamiqa Gabbi), mother (the wacky Navnindra Behl), top spy (Tabu), her handler (Azmeri Haque Badhon)…

Frankly, I can't recall a spy flick with that many key female characters, wholly owning the show. At best, think of it as the reverse of Raazi (2018). Only, way more a film with a twistedly funny bone.

Also, a softness of touch here and there - whether that be the use of ambient sound, at home, concert, car, for a full-on soundtrack. Or just staying put with characters and their lives, rather than getting too carried away by geopolitical stuff. In this case, Indo-US relations, or regime change in Bangladesh. The big stuff is there, mainly to frame the script against.

At the centre, of course, is Tabu, being Tabu - as in, never interfering with the story-telling, while carrying it forward with sufficient heft. Even hitting the right note with fluent Bengali since The Namesake (2006). Bhardwaj-Tabu might well rank among the greatest director-muse combos, going all the way up to Vijay-Dev Anand, or Ray-Soumitra, for all we know!

Which is to take away nothing from Wamiqa Gabbi (Jubilee, Grahan, Charlie Chopra) - easily the star of the season, adding to the film's charm, even as you question some of the leaps of faith in it, that must not be mentioned here, for fear of spoilers.

Khufiya is Bhardwaj's debut on Netflix. The film drops in 200 countries simultaneously. A lot of Indian content, you notice, tops charts in several regions outside India on the platform, even globally, sometimes.

This might be a great take off point for audiences themselves to discover more of Bhardwaj's world-class previous works, if this film works for them as much. It's also perhaps the only spy movie, where the doofus is the white guy. Or as a character tells the CIA agent, "Seems like you guys are smart only in the movies!"

I've watched Khufiya twice already, over a gap of a week or two. Speed-watched it the second time, without the unnecessary burden/expectations of a slow-burn, ‘Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy' like espionage stuff, basis Bhushan's book. Hence, enjoyed the second time even more!