‘Andhadhun’, by Director Sriram Raghavan is a quirky story about a blind piano player Akash (Ayushman Khurana) who is training himself for a competition in London. He befriends Sofie (Radhika Apte) who runs a restaurant and becomes her resident musician. As Amit Trivedi songs fill the air, Akash and Sophie allow their feelings to expand. His melodious pieces impress Pramod Sinha (Anil Dhawan), a 70’s star of Bollywood, who invites him home to surprise his wife Simi (Tabu) on their wedding anniversary. But when Akash turns up at his home, things are not what they seem to be. It is now that the story takes a dramatic turn.

The sequence of events that unfold after Akash’s first visit to Simi’s home are well crafted and neatly presented. The background score is reminiscent of 70’s music in Bollywood. Anil Dhawan is an actor-turned real estate trader who is very fond of his wife. He is generous and naive and willing to go to great lengths to please her. He is the personification of a self-obsessed movie star, with floppy hair and an uncorrupted view of the world.

The tone of Andhadhun is freakish and mean and the pace as feverish as that of a late train trying to make up lost time. The characters are unprincipled in a businesslike way as they lay claim to money that doesn’t belong to them. Crimes for money, lust and power take you through corridors of organ extraction rackets, sleaze, and unexpected twists and turns carried out with impunity, at a breathless pace. After the interval, you feel like you are in a race with no end in sight. There is nothing smooth or effortless about the crimes. The end always seems to justify the means.

Raghavan succeeds in holding the audience’s attention with a strong plot. Good performances by Khurana and  Tabu also help. There are funny moments in the cinema too. One cannot help but feel sorry for Akash as he tries to wriggle out of tough situations that are not entirely his doing. For the most part, the movie is crisp and does not bore you.

Ayushman Khurana gets under the skin of Akash’s character and gives you little reason to doubt his ability as an actor. If playing a visually challenged artist were not tough enough, the drama also revolves around his blindness. Tabu is outstanding too. Cold, calculative and surgical, she is even willing to kill to hide her misdeeds. Radhika Apte has improved considerably from her past performances such as those in “Parched” and “Badlapur”. As in his previous films like  Ek Hasina Thi and Johnny Gaddaar, Raghavan employs minor characters to spring major surprises with ease. Chhaya Kadam as a wannabe criminal way out of her league is too funny for words. Zakir Hussain, a regular actor in Raghavan’s films, makes sure you sympathize with his character, no matter how wrongful his deeds. Ashwini Kalsekar, another Raghavan regular, is terrific as the wife of the burly police officer Manohar (Manav Vij).

Andhadhun is easily the first real Pune noir, proving that pusillanimous behavior can exist comfortably  among the city’s older houses and newer complexes. Raghavan’s talent for recasting ordinary people into criminals who know their job and his use of locations and sharply sculpted characters to advance his plot is put to great use in Andhadhun.

At a current run time of 139 minutes, Andhadhun slides into place as smoothly as one of Akash’s piano pieces.