‘Blind Game’ movie review: Arjun Rampal’s swag can’t save this twisted thriller

When noted filmmaker Sangeeth Sivan passed away in 2024, he left behind a rich legacy of genre-defining Malayalam films such as Yoddha and Nirnayam alongside a string of unapologetic Hindi potboilers. His posthumous thriller, Blind Game, arrives as an intriguing final chapter, attempting to channel the taut, puzzle-box sensibility of his 1990s thrillers into a Hindi adaptation of the Malayalam hit 7th Day.

Yet, despite strong screen presence from Arjun Rampal and Priyamani, the film struggles to match the razor-sharp craft of his early career, leaving both the plot and its characters lost in the mist of the Himachal hills.

On a wintry Christmas Eve in Manali, a suspended IPS officer named Sikander (Rampal) crosses paths with two panicked youths after a minor car accident. Their confession draws him into a deadly web involving five college friends, Vicky, Shaan, Jerry, Jessica, and Burger, who stumbled upon Rs 5 crore belonging to a ruthless Southeast Asian crime boss.

As an apparent suicide triggers a cat-and-mouse investigation alongside local inspector Yamini (Priyamani), Sikander must untangle a maze of lies, fake identities, and betrayal before the gangsters reclaim their money. Shot when Rs 2000 notes were in circulation, and Arjun was still keen on carrying a film on his broad shoulders, the mystery unfolds much like navigating a winding mountain road in low visibility.

The screenplay keeps introducing sharp turns, implausible cover-ups, unguarded witnesses, and sudden betrayals, without giving the audience clear landmarks to follow. Arjun brings weathered gravitas, and Priyamani lends quiet sincerity to a single-note character, but the young guns at the centre of the storm fire a series of blanks.

Playing the panicked quintet, the ensemble struggles to elevate flat dialogue and thin characterisation. Instead of feeling like desperate friends caught in a lethal trap, they seem like merely waiting for the next plot twist to move them around.

By the time the truth emerges, the emotional and logical threads have become so tangled that the final reveal feels like an arbitrary twist rather than an inevitable conclusion. In a murder mystery, when you guard the truth just for the sake of it, curiosity dries up before the blood does.