“Privacy” (2023) [Bucheon International Fantastic Film Festival]

by Joseph Perry and Mike Imboden

In our “The Good, the Bad, and the Verdict” film reviews, Joseph and Mike give their thoughts on a slice of cinema. For this installment, it’s the Mumbai-set thriller Privacy (India, 2023) by writer/director Sudeep Kanwal and Fundamental Pictures in association with House of Talent Studio.

Synopsis

Privacy follows the story of Roopali (Rajshri Deshpande), who works at the Mumbai surveillance command and control center as an operator. While being ambitious, she constantly fights her own guilt and resists her dark past. Things start to get complicated when Roopali ignores protocol and begins to investigate a robbery/murder that takes place on her watch.

The Good

Joseph: Deshpande is an intriguing lead portraying a character that keeps viewers guessing throughout the film. Roopali borders on being an antiheroine, and as backstory and intentions are added to the mix, she becomes engagingly enigmatic. Kanwal interestingly writes all of the main police characters with mixed — or seemingly so — morals, building suspense quite nicely, especially during the second and third acts.

Mike: The subject of privacy when it comes to how much the government can see or have access to is nothing new to just about every country on earth, and the views for and against the amount of reach is seemingly universal. One side says it stops crime, the other says it opens people up to potential bad actors within the system who could use captured video for the wrong reasons. Here in Privacy, we see main character Roopali make a case for the two arguments; on one hand she is (a bit too) gung-ho to help solve crimes, but the other has her surreptitiously sneaking archived footage home on a flash drive hidden in her hair so she can watch a couple who live in a nice apartment. It’s these two warring mindsets that make Roopali such an interesting character to watch as her shades of gray push her into some extreme situations. Writer/director Sudeep Kanwal never leans too far to one side of the privacy argument or the other which allows the viewer to look at their own moral compass.

The Bad

Joseph: The first act is rather slow, making reveals in the following two acts feel rather abrupt. Privacy is certainly not the first film to set matters up in this manner, but another issue with that first act is that Kanwal’s “Privacy is dead” message is emphatically stated rather than subtly so, to the degree that it loses some of its punch as the film goes on.

Mike: Privacy’s biggest flaw is that it moves far too slowly. A fair amount happens during the first act, but nothing really HAPPENS in that the plot is about at the same point for a good while, although once the second act starts rolling the overall pace DOES seem to pick up.

The film also suffers from a few incongruities in the passage of time, mostly towards the beginning. I personally found these a bit confusing and it took too long for them to get straightened out.

The Verdict

Joseph: A solid thriller with film noir elements and some homage to Alfred Hitchock’s Rear Window, Privacy is an absorbing effort that works best when it focuses on entertaining rather than educating.

Mike: Despite a couple of minor flaws that could have possibly been corrected with some more editing, Kanwal delivers a compelling look at the debate over surveillance and privacy by presenting the issues through the morally ambiguous main character of Roopali (played excellently by Rajshri Deshpande).

While the arguments for and against the issues tackled within are nothing new to society OR the silver screen, Privacy still manages to tell an interesting and engaging story that is worth checking out.

Privacy, from Fundamental Pictures, is currently playing as part of the Bucheon International Fantastic Film Festival

Privacy