Movie Review: Kaabil

Movie Review: ‘Kaabil’
Rating: 3/5
Director: Sanjay Gupta
Cast: Hrithik Roshan, Yami Gautam, Ronit Roy, Rohit Roy, Narendra Jha, Girish Kulkarni

Kaabil Movie Trailer

Revenge is a dish best served blind is the message Kaabil serves up. Drawing inspiration from Hollywood’s Blind Fury (1989) with Rutger Hauer in the lead and even borrowing shades of the Korean super hit, Broken (2014), Sanjay Gupta gives you a Bollywood adaptation that is entertaining and effective.

When they get hitched, visually-impaired couple Rohan Bhatnagar (Hrithik Roshan) and Supriya Sharma (Yami Gautam) light up each other’s lives. Unfortunately their dark world goes topsy-turvy when Supriya is raped and Rohan finds the policemen playing blind man’s bluff. Leaving him with no choice, but to take the law into his own hands.

Hrithik Roshan takes his biggest career risk with Kaabil. For an actor whose name is synonymous with good looks, vanity and superstardom, to play a simple ordinary guy who isn’t bothered by the way he looks on screen or how many packs he has hidden behind his shirt, for him Kaabil is a huge risk. Does it pay off ? Yes, by leaps and bounds.

Kaabil works simply because Hrithik takes it to another level. His honesty and openness in letting us get a glimpse of Rohan’s world is endearing. Right from the opening frame where we watch Rohan make breakfast to the very last scene you are spellbound by Hrithik’s craft. You are waiting for him to mess up, or maybe there will be a flaw and he will get out of character, look in the camera, but that doesn’t happen even for a second.

Kaabil also works because you watch characters and not caricatures. Hrithik and Yami’s chemistry is outstanding the idea to cast these two opposite each other just fantastic. Yami provides the perfect foil, subtle and super-effective. Sanjay Gupta’s style is sexy yet tame. He doesn’t go all out with lighting up the frames or focussing on the VFX, instead the spotlight is on the script and building up a strong narrative. Brothers Ronit and Rohit Roy shine in their roles and bring in the right baddie sauce to the dish.

The dialogues are crisp and Hrithik’s monologue just when the interval sets in will get the theatre up on their seats. Also Rajesh Roshan’s soundtrack is a throwback to the 90’s when melody reigned supreme. Urvashi Rautela’s item song Haseeno Ka Deewana provides the right welcome break to an otherwise serious scenario.

Kaabil does have a lazy first half and we wished the pace picked up early on. The VFX in some scenes is botched up and Mumbai’s familiar terrain (Marine Drive scenes) is mismatched with some unnecessary props. Yami’s scenes in the second half and her dialogues with Hrithik also feel forced. Kaabil is dark and violent. There is very little scope for relief and humor in this script. That can become tiresome after a while.

Technically the film is adept, Thanks to masters like Sudeep Chatterjee (camera) and Resul Pookutty(sound). However Rajesh Roshan’s yesteryear hits—Saara Zamana and Dil Kya Karen in their remixed avatars are pale imitations of their original versions.  Hrithik Roshan‘s career best performance. Watch and marvel at what can easily be termed as the finest performance to come out of Bollywood in a long time.