On 31st October 1984, Prime Minister Indira Gandhi was assassinated by her Sikh bodyguards. The act ignited instant hatred towards members of the Sikh community. Thousands of Sikhs lost their lives. Some Hindus helped their Sikh brothers, while others butchered them.
These aren’t just facts strung together. They also happen to be the paper-thin plot of 31st October. Devinder ( Vir Das) , Tejinder ( Soha Ali Khan) and their three children lock themselves in their house as the city of New Delhi burns outside. Their friends from the other side of town struggle to dodge the rioters and get to them.
A story as simple as that has been embellished with a dozen unnecessary characters ( each one's death adding to the runtime) , lessons on the Sikh community, Sonu Nigam singing over slo-mo riot scenes and a B-story of blossoming love, that is altogether forgotten 15 minutes into the movie.
Entirely too much time is spent on the set-up, the first half is dialogue-heavy but characters seem to ramble and the sound is terrible. When actors speak, you feel them dubbing the lines right there, next to you.
Producer-writer Harry Sachdeva's heart must have been in the right place, but a lot else wasn’t. In parts, the movie ends up looking like a dramatic reenactment of riots from a crime show.
Soha Ali Khan and Vir Das try to be sincere but don’t have much to do. Das’s Devinder practically spends the whole second half sitting, sleeping, huffing and puffing to combat his low blood pressure.
To its credit, the movie is only 102 minutes long, and you can see a sense of honesty in it. But the final product is underwhelming and looks like a small-scale remake of the Hollywood film franchise, The Purge ( innocent people running scared on the streets, dodging murderous mobs
