Kaabil Review - Revenge is a Dish Best Served Cold

Sethumadhavan

Sanjay Gupta’s Kaabil has been in the news right from the time it was announced. Be it the allegation of plagiarism by actor Sudhanshu Pandey, the clash with Rahul Dholakia’s Raees (making it a Hrithik Roshan vs SRK contest at the Box Office) or reports of Netflix considering legal action allegedly against Sanjay Gupta and producer Rakesh Roshan as they considered the film to be inspired from their popular web-series, Daredevil. With neither the teams of Kaabil nor Raees budging from their plan to release the film during the Republic Day holiday, the stage was all set for a showdown as both the films went on to open in theatres eventually a day ahead of the big holiday. While the first trailer of the Kaabil met with a largely negative response, the second trailer was a lot better and it looked like the film could probably end up surprising the audience. Well considering that both Sanjay Gupta and Rakesh Roshan are old masters when it comes to making masala entertainers, I was quite curious to know how the film had eventually turned out.

To start with I must admit that the promos of Kaabil were absolutely honest, the plot is exactly what was hinted at. Rohan Bhatnagar (Hrithik Roshan) is a talented voice artist, who despite being blind is comfortable leading the life he wants. He goes on to meet Suhani (Yami Gautam) who is a music enthusiast, working with an NGO and also blind like Rohan. They go on to fall in love and get married. However their days of blissful married life come to an abrupt end as a couple of wayward local guys, Amit Shellar (Rohit Roy) and Wasim (Md.Sahidur Rahaman) go on to rape Suhani. A distraught Rohan and Suhani find it difficult to get the cops to help them, as Amit and Wasim manage to get away thanks to the influence of Amit’s elder brother Madhavrao Shellar (Ronit Roy), the local corporator. Suhani goes on to commit suicide and it is now that something changes within Rohan as he realizes that the system is not there to help a weak individual like him get justice. He decides to go about avenging the injustice meted out to Suhani in his own way, how does he go about it is what we get to see as the film progresses.

The first half is straight out of an 80’s revenge saga seen in various Bollywood and other Indian language films (remember Mera Jawab of 1985?) in terms of presentation and even narrative style by and large. Just when you start groaning and wondering why did the makers choose a subject like this in today’s times, you are greeted by a smart second half as we see Sanjay Gupta opting for a thriller route rather than going in for a full on actioner. There is a certain edginess to the proceedings which sets in post interval, something that was sorely missing in the first half. However it is silly to see the way the characters resort to stylish dialogues even in tense situations, often trying to sound over smart by revealing their intentions or what they have been up to. Take for example Madhavrao’s confession of the crime committed by Amit and Wasim and his cover-up of the same. Or the follow up scene which sees Rohan making his intentions clear to the cops, again it looks a little too good to be true.

Another aspect regarding Kaabil that would certainly not go unnoticed is the shoddy VFX work involved, very strange for a big film like this. Rajesh Roshan’s music largely gives you a sense of déjà vu, for example the “Kaabil Hoon” song (lyrics by Nasir Faraaz, vocals by Jubin Nautiyal and Palak Muchhal) takes you back to the 90’s, while the “Mon Amour” song has been shot well and the choreography is quite elegant. Among the supporting cast Suresh Menon gets a serious role for a change and he is okay, while it is a little strange to see Girish Kulkarni do something similar to what he did in Ugly, playing the cop. Narendra Jha, Rohit Roy and Ronit Roy are all pretty effective. Yami Gautam plays Supriya with great care and comfort, she compliments Hrithik quite well and they share a great chemistry on screen. Hrithik Roshan does well, especially in the second half as he plays mind games with the antagonists. Kaabil is one of the better films from Sanjay Gupta, but not something that is totally unique for a star like Hrithik.

Bottomline:

Sanjay Gupta has come up with a film that has a theme that is nearly as old as the hills. Despite that he manages to keep the film engaging largely thanks to a smart second half where Hrithik Roshan is very much in control.

Rating: 2.5/5

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