Judgemental Hai Kya

The basic idea of the new Kangana Ranaut starrer Judgemental Hai Kya comes from a point of perspective. Our interpretation of normal and abnormal depends way too much on being a regular person. And among the not so regular ones, we tend to call some mental, simply because they weren’t afraid to be themselves in the public eye. Kanika Dhillon is somewhat juggling with this idea in her new script Judgemental Hai Kya (previously titled Mental Hai Kya) and the end result is an interesting one.

Bobby is the main protagonist. She is a dubbing artist and has some mental health issues due to the tragic events that happened in her childhood. The movie Judgemental Hai Kya is showing us two chapters in Bobby’s life where she bumps into a man named Keshav. According to Bobby, Keshav is a very dangerous man and whether she is correct or not becomes a tricky thing for everyone due to her mental health issues and the movie is trying to answer that particular question.

There are actually two layers to this script. One is that of the emotional space in which Bobby is. She is raw and has no filters in communicating things. Her loneliness is making her look into the privacy of people. Her suggestions and warnings are interpreted as madness. The second layer is that of a thriller. Prakash Kovelamudi uses the visuals very smartly to confuse the viewer in judging Keshav. The shifting between these two tones makes this movie an impressive interpretation of the concept. The way the movie shows the irony of people calling others mental by normalizing their judgmental attitude was used in the movie to create some hilarious comical moments. But the problem I felt was that it looked too exhausting after a point. The Wikipedia page of the movie says the running time is only 116 minutes, and even that looked a bit tiring for me.

Kangana Ranaut is spectacular in being Bobby. In totality, the movie may or may not work for you. But the character of Bobby will surely get a space in your head. Kangana manages to make us hate her at some points but eventually, there is an empathy generated towards Bobby. It is a performance that could have gone on the gimmicky side very easily, but she had the grip over the character. Rajkummar Rao was indeed a smart choice as Keshav needed that unpredictable nature in holding the interest of the audience. Amyra Dastur as Reema was just about okay. Amrita Puri was really good as Megha. Hussain Dalal was hilarious. Satish Kaushik and Bijendra Kala were fun to watch, but they don’t have much of space here in the movie.

This is Prakash Kovelamudi’s first Hindi movie and he does understand the vision of writer Kanika Dhillon. He maintains the unpredictability and complexity throughout the film. With each script, Kanika Dhillon is becoming more and more promising as she bravely explores the grey shades. I would say she knows how to put across politically incorrect stuff by making us understand the emotional space of characters. Be it Rumi from Manmarziyan or Bobby from Judgemental Hai Kya, you will be fascinated by the characters she has written. In terms of exploring Bobby, Judgemental Hai Kya is greatly satisfying, but on the thriller front, the movie isn’t completely exciting. The climax is not going to surprise you in a huge way and that partial predictability is one reason why I think I felt the movie as a bit stretched out one. The cinematography maintains a sensible level of spookiness.

Kangana Ranaut’s acting and Kanika Dhillon’s writing definitely makes Judgemental Hai Kya an interesting film. It has its own pacing issues and complications. If you are someone who is looking to see something different from the routine stuff, I would say you should give this movie a shot.

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