<img style="float: left;" src="https://images.mid-day.com/images/images/2026/nov/Mayank-Shekhar-new_1793749447_s.jpg" alt="Mayank Shekhar" width="150" height="76" />Mud Mud Ke Na Dekh, Kishor Ko Maar, Kaala Chashma, Saaz Aur Saazish were the titles being toyed with. What was finally picked a month before the cult Bollywood film&rsquo;s release?&nbsp;
As with any trivia question, the answer is collectively in the clues. It&rsquo;s Sriram Raghavan&rsquo;s Andhadhun (2018)!&nbsp;
Which is obviously the best title &mdash; &lsquo;andha&rsquo; for blind protagonist, Akash (Ayushmann Khurrana), constantly singing a different tune/dhun, along with the mystery thriller/caper he&rsquo;s in. The space is primarily noir. Every character inhabits a morally ambiguous universe.
The craziest one, still, is Simi (Tabu), who kills off her husband, Pramod (Anil Dhawan), and a potential witness (Mohini Kewalramani) &mdash; both in broad daylight.&nbsp;
She triggers the plot. Her motivation apart &mdash; she and her boyfriend (Manav Vij) wish to loot the rich, old husband together &mdash; what do you know about Simi?&nbsp;
So little that Tabu confesses to me, &ldquo;Andhadhun performance was the most abstract, black-hole space I&rsquo;ve been, in terms of a character, with no reference point in life, or cinema! I can&rsquo;t compare this experience to anything in my career.&rdquo;
The film, she remembers, began to roll, within 10 days of locking in its principal cast. To top that, the first scene she shot occurs far too deep into the movie &mdash; all the more complex for what her character is up to.&nbsp;
Recalling that scene, Tabu mentions poison, making a gun with her fingers. She obviously means the sequence, where Simi barges into Akash&rsquo;s apartment to figure whether the piano man is actually blind, or faking it, after all. The devastation that follows is the stuff of mad drama.&nbsp;
Tabu wondered to the director, why start from here, why not get her comfy with the journey first? &ldquo;Sriram told me he likes to start with the most complicated scene. So be it.&nbsp;
&ldquo;That said, even on the last day of shoot, I was still in the process of breaking down Simi, and it was still breaking me. Was it that the character was so broken, and therefore breaking me, in turn?&rdquo;
The maiden day of shoot wasn&rsquo;t the first time Tabu had questions for the director. She joyously laughs, mocking her drawl, throughout the shoot, &ldquo;Accha&hellip; Sreeraam&hellip;?&rdquo; And the questions really related to, as she puts it, the blurring lines between what the audience knows, and doesn&rsquo;t.
Consider the husband&rsquo;s funeral. Simi is sobbing: &ldquo;In that scene at the prayer meet, Simi is acting. The audience knows that. But she&rsquo;s not an actor. How much to be sincere and convincing then? &nbsp;It was bloody crazy!&nbsp;
&ldquo;The thing with Andhadhun is, I had to have a measure of everything. You can&rsquo;t go overboard. Are we pitching her as a typical villain? No. The moment you do that, the audience won&rsquo;t be with you.&rdquo;
And that&rsquo;s also the beauty of her unhinged, unpredictable character. You can&rsquo;t keep a tab on Tabu. You discover Simi, through her actions, at the same time as the actor herself. The audience is pretty much leading the investigation.&nbsp;
The one time Tabu actually wept, in real life, was after shooting the bit when Simi topples her neighbbour, Mrs D&rsquo;Sa, off the ledge: &ldquo;There was a body-double. And it shook me.&rdquo;
Likewise, the only time Simi&rsquo;s real is when she cries after her husband&rsquo;s death, while Akash, supposedly blind, is still in the apartment. It&rsquo;s her &ldquo;moment of truth, because she&rsquo;s technically alone&rdquo;&mdash; something that Tabu contributed to the script, building the character with Sriram.&nbsp;
While there were several options for what happens to Simi in the end &mdash; she&rsquo;s found begging outside a temple, or with a don at a Dubai cricket match &mdash;&nbsp;
Tabu was clear about the climax.&nbsp;
Death alone has to be Simi&rsquo;s redemption.&nbsp;
It&rsquo;s this &ldquo;organic process of discovering a film [together]&rdquo;, which can&rsquo;t be replicated, Tabu says, that made her decline offers to similarly star in the Telugu/Tamil remakes of Andhadhun.&nbsp;
Hyderabad-born Tabu turns 55 on November 4. She would&rsquo;ve wrapped up at least 80 films in multiple languages until Andhadhun. Among her favourites, she told me, include Maachis, Astitva, Hu Tu Tu, Chandni Bar, The Namesake, Life of Pi, and Cheeni Kum.
Also, two other films that get subtly referenced in Andhadhun. There&rsquo;s a line about a YouTube comment from Denmark. Simi replies, &ldquo;Isn&rsquo;t that where Hamlet&rsquo;s set?&rdquo;&nbsp;
Tabu starred as Ghazala/Queen Gertrude in Haider (2014), Vishal Bhardwaj&rsquo;s adaptation of Hamlet. Simi is similarly named &ldquo;Lady Macbeth&rdquo; in a scene &mdash; homage to Tabu&rsquo;s Nimmi in Vishal&rsquo;s Maqbool (2004).
Both being hauntingly layered roles with dark overtones that will live on forever. With Vishal, Tabu says, &ldquo;The uniqueness is in the sexuality he portrays &mdash; within the canvas, and the plot never diminishing that energy. He allows me to bring every aspect of my personality to the set.&rdquo;
Same with Sriram, she reasons: &ldquo;These directors have the film in their head &mdash; and they let everybody play.&rdquo; The vibe shows. That&rsquo;s probably why a performance on stage is simply called play, no?
Mayank Shekhar attempts to make sense of mass culture. He tweets @mayankw14 Send your feedback to mailbag@mid-day.com The views expressed in this column are the individual&rsquo;s and don&rsquo;t represent those of the paper.

Reliving that crazy noir role with one of India’s greatest actors, as she turns a year younger!

Absolute andhadhun love for Tabu!

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Home / News / Opinion / Article / Absolute andhadhun love for Tabu!

Absolute andhadhun love for Tabu!

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