Movie Review: Aasmaan Bhardwaj’s ‘Kuttey’
Vishal Bhardwaj over the years with his collaboration with Gulzar Sahab has become a genre in Indian Cinema. His idea of setting his stories in land politically charged and shaping a world that speaks of freedom has been a liberating escape. Decades into the business, he now fuels his heir to take the legacy ahead and rightly so. Enters, Aasmaan Bhardwaj. With a team that is no less than a tall-order dream, he ventures out to tell a quirky yet rooted story and like his father does what he knows best, serving top-notch content.
The confidence with which Aasmaan decides to take his legacy ahead also adds his essence to it. If Vishal Bhardwaj telling indulging stories with his ideology represented without making it preachy are your gig, here is his son taking ahead the legacy with his touch.
On the whole, Kuttey is an entertaining film. It is class-appealing and will, therefore, get more critical acclaim than box-office rewards because such films nowadays work better on OTT platforms. Family audience patronage will be less for the film. At the ticket windows, the well-written, well-made and well-enacted film will do limited business but collections will definitely pick up as the word of mouth among the class audience will be good.
By crafting a complex, dark satire that is nearly perfect, the rookie filmmaker shows his mettle. Something that filmmakers nowadays, even seasoned ones, struggle to attain. The pretty exciting, action-packed thriller, with its comedic chase scenes, promises a lot but only partially delivers. The utterly unexpected twist, which I’m willing to bet no one will see coming, and the fresh approach to the grab-and-run sub-genre are the reasons to see ‘Kuttey’.
KUTTEY rests on the strong performances of Arjun Kapoor, Tabu and Kumud Mishra. Arjun Kapoor puts up a very good act and dominates some key sequences. Tabu, as expected, is terrific and her mere presence elevates the impact. Kumud Mishra gets an important part to play and is dependable. Radhika Madan is great, especially in the car sequence, and deserved more screen time. The same goes for Shardul Bhardwaj. Naseeruddin Shah is royally and criminally wasted. Konkona Sen Sharma is hardly there, though she rocks the show. Ashish Vidyarthi and Jay Upadhyay get no scope. Karan Nagar (Sharad; Narayan Khobre’s son), Vijayant Kohli (Mamu; ATM van driver) and Ajit Shidhaye (Jehangir) are fine. Anurag Kashyap (Politician) and Aasmaan Bhardwaj are fair in cameos.
Vishal Bhardwaj’s music is unconventional but the songs don’t get registered as they are barely used, that too in the background, especially ‘Khoon Ki Khushboo’, ‘Vaat Lagli’ and ‘Kuttey’. A few songs that stand out are ‘Ek Aur Dhan Te Nan’, ‘Awaara Dogs’, ‘Tere Saath’ and ‘Azadi’. Vishal Bhardwaj’s background score has a quirky and badass vibe.
Farhad Ahmed Dehlvi’s cinematography is neat. Subrata Chakraborty and Amit Ray’s production design are realistic. Harpal Singh and Anton Moon’s action is quite violent, especially in the beginning. Karishma Sharma’s costumes are straight out of life. Visual Birds Studios’ VFX is praiseworthy. A Sreekar Prasad’s editing is too quick.
