Review: Badminton (2025)

Using cinema as a medium to critique the current socio-political situation of a nation is a risky task. It can have repercussions that can jeopardise the career of a filmmaker. However, some filmmakers are clever enough to use the medium of cinema to express their opinions regarding the current zeitgeist. They convey their thoughts with such subtle strokes that finding them culpable or dissenter becomes difficult. Dibakar Banerjee's latest short film Badminton carefully threads the delicate path of using the narrative as a format to convey a comment on society. Within eleven minutes, the filmmaker creates a world where the characters function as a medium to reflect his perception of a society trapped in biases and selfishness.     

The film begins with a rich and arrogant man walking into an empty bar and demanding alcohol. The bartender refuses to serve him because someone important has died and the owner of the bar has instructed him to consider it as a dry day. The man gets miffed and breaks a glass. The bartender gets scared and tries to control the situation before it blows out of proportion. He is willing to offer the man a drink. The man starts to talk with the bartender. Soon, we discover that the man has come to the bar looking for her girlfriend. The man believes that she is cheating on her. Through a flashback, it is revealed the man’s girlfriend is hiding in the bar and the bartender has helped her.       

The interesting aspect of this film is the use of satire to keep us engaged with the narrative. The world of the film revolves around four characters and the events unfold within an isolated bar. The filmmaker uses the bar as a microcosm of our society and briefly analyzes the prejudices and manipulations within us. There is not a single line of dialogue in the film that appears to be didactic. The storytelling is simple and there is clarity in the screenplay written by Anuvab Pal. The story of the film brings forward relevant issues without making it complicated. There is a dinosaur in the bar as an installation. It is an expensive item and has been used as a symbol to highlight how ancient objects still attract us and our thought processes. The rich man in the film uses racial slurs for her girlfriend and considers the bartender a foreigner due to his appearance. It Indicates how we discriminate against people in our society based on their appearance. There is a cleaner in the bar who is a Muslim and the only character in the film to have a name, which is Sheikh. Whenever a glass is broken he is called to clean up the broken pieces of the glass. By doing so, the filmmaker comments on how people from marginalized communities are treated in our society.     

The film boasts an amazing cast of actors-Jim Sarbh, Vijay Maurya, Sayani Gupta, and Mohammad Ebadullah. Their performances are so real that they never come in the way of emotions or become overdramatic. The cinematographer, Priya Seth, has stylishly shot the film in warm tones to set the right tone. Paramita Ghosh has edited the film with a seamless rhythm.     

But despite having an interesting subject, the short film does not live up to the expectations of the story. The treatment of the film is too casual, which does not work in its favour and makes it a one-time watch.        

Badminton is currently available on YouTube.           

*****