Thappad

Grade: C

There seems to be a sudden recent trend where a handful of foreign films have been showing up in regular American theatres. The Regal closest to me is always showing 3 or 4 at a time for the past month or so. I’m noticing it now more than ever before. I wonder if it is the success and attention of Parasite that has helped open all these other doors. One in particular caught my eye – an Indian Hindi-language drama called Thappad. I figured it would be gone from theatres in a week or so, and I’d catch it later, streaming at home. After I saw that it was still hanging in there at my local Regal after the likes of The Invisible Man, Onward, and The Way Back have all been rolled in, I got curious enough to give it a chance and expand my horizons.

Thappad, which translates to “the slap,” is 2 hours and 22 minutes, and has one of the simplest plots to describe. A husband slaps his wife at a party at their house. How do you make a movie that long about something like that, I wondered. The answer is you pad and over-inflate it with extra characters and subplots nobody cares about. Thappad opens with a handful of couples being laboriously introduced, one by one, with each getting a scene of their own. Of course it turns out they are all connected somehow, Love Actually style, but lacking 90% of the heart. I just wanted to get to the meat and potatoes: the slap. The husband is not abusive, but lacking in empathy, emotionally unavailable, and a workaholic. They throw a party at home because he just found out he got a dream promotion. During the party, one contrived plot point leads to another, and he finds out it’s not quite the deal he thought. Conversations get heated, the wife comes out to see what’s going on, and finds herself in the crossfire when the husband impulsively slaps her.

The melodramatic way the movie treats the material is like a treacly after-school special. Now, I don’t get physical. I don’t slap/spank/punch, or even understand it. This was his first and only time slapping her, and I agree that there shouldn’t have even been a first time. I did not much care for the husband character (until the end, which was too little too late), and I was totally on the wife’s side. Both are ably and convincingly played by Taapsee Pannu and Pavail Gulati. Too bad they are not in a film that better serves them. Director Anubhav Sinha does eventually stick the landing, with a nice, peaceful, realistic, satisfying conclusion, but all that happens before it is a mess. The sound and overall visuals come off as low budget and cheap. The score is like lame computerized soap opera music, with little musical stingers that pop up after a particularly bold line, just to make sure we get the point. I was intrigued to see the word “Interval” show up on the screen halfway through. Is that common in these movies?

I would welcome a remake of Thappad, with the fat trimmed, the histrionics toned down, and production values beefed up – partly so I can brag that I got in on the ground floor and “knew it when.” But also, I think it’s a story worth telling, and a conversation worth having. I cannot recommend this movie – this version, anyway. But that doesn’t mean I wouldn’t want somebody to take a few of the same ingredients and try again.

Grade: C