Kaabil

We all knew what the entire story was from the two trailers of Kaabil. May be even Sanjay Gupta knew the fact that nobody is going to praise the story of Kaabil when it gets released. To be fair, on paper Kaabil is very much an average material as it is that same old common man’s revenge against the mighty. But who takes this average movie to the next level is Hrithik Roshan with his truly honest performance.

Rohan is this blind guy who dubs for small cartoons for a living. He meets this girl Supriya who is also blind and performs piano at a dance class. They both fell in love and decided to get married. Post marriage things were smooth until one incident truly shatters the couple. Their limitations were utilized by the people in power and the injustice went to that level were Rohan had to face the worst that could happen. How this blind, shattered husband seeks revenge for what happened to his wife is what Kaabil dealing with.

Like I said in the beginning, the story holds zero surprise for us. What they are really trying to pitch is the modus operandi of Rohan to take revenge. To be honest the technique is a mixed bag. Our main protagonist is good in mimicry and for a major portion he uses that to cause issues. While he uses some basic level ideas to tackle his limits in some plan executions, an over the top cinematic factor is there in every such instance which we may not try to dwell in. There is a scene in which Ronit Roy kicks a door to open it and it actually results in a blast. We get to see a wide angle shot of the place in which Ronit Roy is not there and this shot and a close up shot of a shocked Ronit Roy is been shown back and forth. It’s a flawed logic, but we as an audience are kind of in a mood to forgive all this because of the filmy drama that has already taken place in this film.

Sanjay Gupta is known for making remakes of Korean movies and this time there are allegations of copying concept from movies like Blind Furry and Broken. Looking at Kaabil there is nothing that is strikingly innovative or impressive which could make us go gaga about the theme. The first half of the film is an extension of the two trailers and the second half is pretty gripping. The director has shown maturity in being careful to detail about the behavior of characters and practicality factor of many of the elements in the story as it involved blind people. What keeps you engaged in the first half is the endearing chemistry of the lead pair and this minimal things they incorporated to make the blind life look less of a struggle. The cat and mouse play in the second half has moments of fun and thrill. Some of the dialogues are these spicy hero centric ones which work nicely.  Cinematography was good and so was the background score. Rajesh Roshan’s music isn’t that catchy because of its old school feel. The visual effects weren’t that great.

Hrithik Roshan is the man who almost single handedly takes Kaabil to a better level. Because of the terrific performance from his side you sort of root for the pain and revenge of Rohan. If you felt like neglecting the flaws in this film, it is mainly because of the extremely earnest performance of Hrithik. His portrayal of positivity and pain has no plastic layers. Yami Gautam also has that innocence and they both look great together. Ronit Roy shines as the venomous antagonist who says those rude things unapologetically. Narendra Jha, Rohit Roy and Girish Kulkarni were also good in their respective roles.

So to sum up, I would say Kaabil is an average revenge drama that got elevated to a different level because of the performance of Hrithik Roshan. The movie is never really out of an engaging phase even after being easily predictable.

Rating: 3/5