Sriram Raghavan started his career with a documentary film on Raman Raghav which caught the eye of Ram Gopal Varma. Soon his first Neo Noir thriller "Ek Hasina Thi" was released with minimal fan fare to a decent box office. He followed his first success with the Meta Neo Noir thriller, “Johnny Gaddar” which paid homage to the 60s master of suspense and thriller Vijay Anand as it entertained the public. After a not so successful experiment with the spy thriller “Agent Vinod”, Sriram was back in form with the fiery “Badlapur”. Badlapur was a big critical and commercial success which would be difficult for most directors to top. However Sriram soon unveiled his most powerful thriller named "Andhadhun" onto an unsuspecting audience.

Andhadhun (2018)
Directed by Sriram Raghavan
Produced by Sudhanshu Vats, Ajit Andhare, Gaurav Nanda, Ashok Vasodia, Kewal Garg, Sanjay Routray and Odette Mayfair-Joy
Starring - Ayushmann Khurrana, Tabu and Radhika Apte
Written by Sriram Raghavan, Hemanth M. Rao, Pooja Ladha Surti, Arijit Biswas and Yogesh Chandekar
Music by Amit Trivedi
Budget/Box Office - INR 32 Crore/INR 450 Crore
Awards - 3 National Film Awards for Best Film, Actor and Story, 5 Filmfare Awards including Best Film (Critics) and Actor (Critics) and Bandung Film Festival Recognition
IMDB Rating - 8.2/10 
RT Rating - 100%
My Rating - 9/10

Sriram watched a French short film “L’Accordeur” about a blind pianist based on screen writer Hemanth Rao’s recommendation. They both were inspired by this short film and wanted to explore that premise further in a movie of their own. Sriram briefly used the concept in Agent Vinod as he brilliantly set up a shot with a blind girl playing a Piano surrounded by the scene's chaos and action as the soft melodic song “Raabta” plays in the background. This prompted Hemanth Rao to explore the concept further while Sriram started work on “Badlapur”. However when Sriram heard the premise of Hrithik Roshan’s “Kaabil” which also featured a blind lead character, he put his movie about a blind pianist on the back burner. His creative juices started flowing again when the concept of the blind pianist evolved into a sighted pianist pretending to be blind and becoming witness to a murder while he plays the piano. The movie was initially titled “Shoot the Piano Player” but the creators decided to give it an even more apt Hindi title "Andhadhun". 

Sriram shared the premise with Varun Dhawan while making Badlapur who was eager to make another movie with his director. However Varun got busy with other movies and became unavailable when the movie’s script was ready for casting and shooting. Ayushmann Khurana heard about the movie and approached Sriram who auditioned him to see if he could play a blind man and a sighted man pretending to be blind. Khurana aced the audition and got cast as the movie’s lead. Sriram told Ayushmann not to watch actors playing blind characters in movies but to visit National school of blind and spend time there. Ayushmann also got special lenses and glasses which made him practically blind on the set by reducing his vision significantly. This made his character’s blindness seem authentic and his performance more genuine. Ayushmann also learned the piano so that he could play the piano in his close up shots unlike most Bollywood actors over the years. Varun Dhawan didn’t play the lead role in the movie but Sriram cast his uncle Anil Dhawan in a role very similar to his real life persona of a faded star of yesteryears. Sriram offered the role of the two female leads in the movie to his first choices Tabu and Radhika Apte who both immediately accepted.

Ayushmann Khurana plays Akash a blind pianist who meets Sophie played by Radhika Apte after a minor accident on the street. They become romantically involved and she gets him a job in her father's club where he meets Dhawan’s retired actor Pramod Sinha. Sinha impressed by Akash’s performance of one of his hit movie songs, invites him to sing at his house on the occasion of his anniversary. When Akash arrives at Sinha’s house he is reluctantly greeted by Sinha’s wife Simi who tells him that her husband is not at home. Simi lets him play the piano after getting convinced about his blindness. When Akash plays the piano Simi silently moves the dead body of her husband with her lover in the background. Unknown to Simi, Akash can in fact see and has been pretending to be blind all this time. Akash goes to the police station but quickly realizes that Simi’s accomplice is one of the cops at the station. When Akash goes back to talk to Simi, he witnesses another murder as Simi pushes her elderly neighbor off the ledge after hearing her share her suspicions regarding Sinha’s murder with the cops. Simi becomes suspicious of Akash’s act and catches him redhanded, post which she drugs him, turning him blind. Akash manages to escape when Simi’s lover comes to kill the now blind pianist. However Akash gets knocked out during his escape and wakes up in a shady organ harvesting clinic. What ensues are some of the most thrilling moments, double and triple crosses in recent film history as Akash tries to avenge his misfortune and get justice.

The movie released to tremendous critical acclaim and phenomenal box office numbers unheard for a movie of this genre. The performances of Ayushmann Khurana and Tabu were applauded universally. The movie won 3 National film awards for Best film, story and actor and 5 Filmfare Awards for best film and actor in the critics category. Andhadhun also got quickly picked up for Tamil, Telugu and Malayalam remakes. Sriram wanted to end the movie with a montage of Bollywood stars who played the piano over the years but decided against it after the idea ran into copyright challenges to use clips of some of its big stars. Sriram kept the audience guessing through out the movie especially with the movie’s terrific open ending. Sriram and team successfully managed to create an intelligent thriller while entertaining the audience and paying homage to the international maestros of thrillers from around the globe. Andhadhun is one of the finest thrillers of Bollywood and the current era. Edgy and utterly entertaining. 9/10.